WASHINGTON – The US Department of Agriculture recently updated the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) to include recommendations approved by representatives from across the poultry industry at the 2018 NPIP Biennial Conference.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is creating a new US Newcastle Disease (ND) Clean program that will focus on primary breeder egg-type chickens, meat-type chickens and turkeys. It will be like a program for avian influenza in that owners can show that their flocks meet all requirements to be considered unaffected by Newcastle Disease thus allowing clean flocks to participate in international and interstate trade, even during an outbreak of the disease. APHIS said this update will benefit the overall industry by maintaining trade flows.

APHIS is updating low pathogenic avian influenza regulations on indemnity and compensation to clarify definitions for various terms related to providing payments for animals, materials, cleaning and disinfection and other steps needed for infected farms to return to normal business.

A new NPIP subpart specific to the game bird industry is in the works. APHIS said the subpart will align with terminology, production methods and end uses in the industry. The new subpart will add testing regimes, terminology and programs specifically designed for the game bird industry.

Finally, APHIS is in the process of standardizing fair market valuations across species, so the language was updated to remove the requirement for use of indemnity calculators. The agency also added a clarification explaining that a virus elimination (VE) calculator will not be used when a claimant and APHIS jointly agree the VE calculator is not applicable to the premises type.