Poultry 



National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPiP) 



The NPIP is a voluntary State-Federal cooperative testing and certification program 

 for poultry breeding flocks, baby chicks, poults, hatching eggs, hatcheries, and dealers. 

 It became operative in 1935 with a three-pronged focus on certifying breeding 

 stock, bird performance, and the ehmination of bacillary white diarrhea (caused 

 by Salmonella pullorum). The objective of the NPIP is to provide a cooperative 

 State-Federal program through which new technology can effectively be applied to 

 the improvement of poultry and poultry products by establishing standards for the 

 evaluation (testing) of poultry breeding stock, baby chicks, poults, and hatching eggs 

 with respect to freedom from certain diseases. 



The diseases covered by the NPIP are avian influenza (fowl plague) and those 

 produced by S. pullorum (pullorum disease), S. gallinarum (fowl typhoid), 

 S. enterica var. enteritidis, Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG, chronic respiratory disease, 

 and infectious sinusitis in turkeys), M. synoviae (MS, infectious synovitis), and 

 M. meleagridis (MM, day-old airsacculitis). In addition, the NPIP has programs 

 such as "U.S. Salmonella Monitored" and "U.S. Sanitation Monitored" that are 

 intended to reduce the incidence of salmonella organisms in hatching eggs, chicks, 

 and poults through effective and practical sanitation procedures at the breeder farm 

 and in the hatchery. 



Poultry is defined in the NPIP as domesticated fowl, including chickens, turkeys, 

 ostriches, emus, rheas, cassowaries, waterfowl, and game birds (except doves 

 and pigeons) that are bred primarily to produce eggs and meat. Three types of 

 participants are involved in the NPIP: independent flocks, hatcheries, and dealers. 

 The poultry products certified by the NPIP are hatching eggs, baby chicks, poults, 

 and started pullets. 



The vast majority of U.S. States prohibit the entry of any poultry shipments except 

 those designated pullorum-typhoid clean. Essentially, such bans mean that poultry 

 moving interstate should participate in the "U.S. PuUorum-Typhoid Clean" program 

 of the NPIP or be tested negative for pullorum-typhoid before leaving their home 

 State. Fifteen States require that all shipments of turkeys they receive be MG 

 clean. Essentially, that requirement means that turkeys moving interstate should 

 participate in the "U.S. MG Clean" program of the NPIP or be tested free of MG 

 before shipment. 



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