United States Department of Agriculture

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Program Aid No. 1857

National Poultry 

Improvement Plan:

Seventy Years of Poultry 

Improvement

Managing the Plan Itself

In all, 48 U.S. States have Official State Agencies 

working with USDA–APHIS to manage the Plan. 

The NPIP Technical Committee is made up of 

Industry, State, and Federal members and meets 

biennially to provide oversight.

The NPIP has certified 130 authorized laboratories 

nationwide to perform the various tests necessary 

to make sure that Plan flocks and premises are 

properly maintained. The rules on these matters 

are also listed in Title 9, CFR:

Blood Testing, and Serological Laboratory 

Protocols

§§ 147.1–147.9

Bacteriological Examination Procedures

§§ 147.10–147.17

Sanitation Procedures

§§ 147.21–147.25

As another service of the Plan, APHIS and the 

Official State Agencies give hands-on workshops

for NPIP participants on such subjects as

Salmonella Isolation and Identification,

Diagnosis of Avian Mycoplasmas, and

Diagnosis of Avian Influenza.

General Conference Committee

The NPIP’s General Conference Committee assists 

USDA in planning, organizing, and conducting 

the biennial NPIP Conference. The Committee 

recommends whether new proposals should be 

considered by delegates to the Conference and—

during the interim between Plan Conferences—

represents the cooperating States in advising 

USDA with respect to administrative procedures 

and interpretations of the NPIP provisions in the 

CFR.

Committee members also help USDA evaluate 

comments received from interested persons 

concerning proposed amendments to the NPIP 

provisions. The Committee recommends to 

the Secretary of Agriculture any changes in the 

provisions of the Plan necessitated by unforeseen 

conditions when postponement until the next 

NPIP Conference would seriously impair the 

operation of the program. Finally, the General 

Conference Committee serves as a forum for the 

study of problems relating to poultry health and 

makes specific recommendations to the Secretary 

concerning ways in which USDA may assist the 

industry in solving these problems.

For More Information

To find out more about the NPIP and how you 

can participate in the Plan, please write to

National Poultry Improvement Plan

1498 Klondike Road, Suite 101

Conyers, GA 30094–5169

or call

(770) 922–3496

and be sure to visit our Web site:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/npip

We look forward to hearing from you.

NATIONAL POULTRY IMPROVEMENT PLAN

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits 

discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis 

of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where 

applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, 

religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political 

beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s 

income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not 

all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with 

disabilities who require alternative means for communication 

of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) 

should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720–2600 

(voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write 

to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence 

Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250–9410, or call (800) 

795–3272 (voice) or (202) 720–6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal 

opportunity provider and employer.

Issued January 2006
The Objective of the NPIP . . .

. . .is to provide a cooperative Industry–State–

Federal program through which new diagnostic 

technology can be effectively applied to the 

improvement of poultry and poultry products 

throughout the country. The provisions of the 

NPIP—both technical and management—have 

been developed jointly by industry members 

and State and Federal officials. These provisions 

establish standards for the evaluation of poultry 

breeding stock and hatchery products with 

respect to freedom from egg-transmitted and 

hatchery-disseminated diseases. Through this 

work, the NPIP provides certification that poultry 

and poultry products destined for interstate 

and international shipment are free of all such 

diseases.

Administration

The Plan is administered through a Memorandum 

of Understanding between the Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture (USDA) and “Official 

State Agencies” in each of the 48 participating 

States. Individual producers in the Plan all sign a 

memorandum of participation with their Official 

State Agency.

USDA–APHIS publishes the provisions of the NPIP 

in Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 

at sections (§§) 145 and 147. When the rules of 

the Plan need to be revised, APHIS consults with 

producers and State poultry officials and submits 

all regulations to normal rulemaking procedures 

before publishing them in the CFR.

Participation

Participation in the NPIP is open to all producers 

who can make their poultry, game-bird, ratite, or 

waterfowl facilities meet Plan requirements. The 

first step is to demonstrate, to the satisfaction 

of the applicant’s Official State Agency, that 

his or her facilities, personnel, and practices 

are adequate for carrying out the applicable 

provisions of the NPIP. Once accepted into the 

Plan, participants have to maintain in the Plan 

all of their poultry hatching-egg supply flocks 

and hatchery operations in a given State. When 

a Plan participant has flocks in one or more 

States, it is sometimes possible to reach a mutual 

understanding and agreement, in writing, 

between the participant’s own Official State 

Agency and the counterpart agency in the other 

State(s) regarding conditions of NPIP participation 

and supervision.

Although the NPIP has several classifications 

related to freedom from various diseases, the 

only required classification for Plan participation 

is “U.S. Pullorum–Typhoid Clean.”

NPIP participants are entitled to use on their 

packaging the NPIP emblem reproduced here:

Inspections

The integrity of the NPIP is maintained through 

a system of random inspections managed by 

State cooperators. Each participating hatchery 

is inspected at least once a year to satisfy the 

Official State Agency that the operations of 

the hatchery are in compliance with the Plan’s 

provisions.

Recordkeeping is another important element in 

the Plan. The records of all flocks maintained 

primarily for production of hatching eggs are 

examined annually by a State inspector.

Supervision

The Official State Agency may designate qualified 

persons as “authorized agents” to do the sample 

collecting and whole-blood testing provided 

for in the CFR at Title 9, §145.14. The Official 

State Agency must employ or authorize qualified 

persons as State inspectors to (1) perform or 

supervise the performance of the testing of 

participating flocks and (2) perform the official 

inspections necessary to verify compliance with 

NPIP requirements.

Flock Provisions

Specific sanitation and bird-identification 

requirements for participating flocks can be 

found in the CFR at Title 9, § 145.5.

Hatchery Provisions

Specific sanitation requirements for participating 

hatcheries are listed in the CFR at Title 9, § 145.6.

The National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) 

was started in the early 1930s to coordinate 

State programs aimed at the elimination of 

pullorum disease from commercial poultry. 

Pullorum is a bacterial disease of poultry 

that is transmitted from a hen to her chicks 

via the egg. By testing adult birds and 

eliminating disease carriers from the breeding 

flock, commercial chicken and turkey 

producers have eliminated this costly disease.

NATIONAL POULTRY IMPROVEMENT PLAN

This seal is a sign that 

the poultry products 

inside are safe and 

wholesome.

Subpart Provisions for Participating

Flocks, Hatcheries, and Dealers

The CFR section on the NPIP is divided into 

subparts by product:

B—Egg-Type Chickens

C—Meat-Type Chickens

D—Turkeys

E—Waterfowl, Exhibition Poultry, and Game Birds

Each participating hatchery is designated as a 

“National Plan Hatchery,” and each participating 

dealer as a “National Plan Dealer.”

The following terms and illustrative logos can 

be used only by (1) NPIP participants to describe 

their flocks and the products produced from 

them, and (2) States that have met the respective 

requirements of the Plan: