Ernst Leads Bipartisan, Bicameral Effort to Protect Poultry Exports

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led over 50 of her colleagues in calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to protect America's agricultural competitiveness by adopting a better definition of "poultry" so Iowa farmers will not miss out on trade opportunities.

In the letter to USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Administrator Dr. Michael Watson, they advocated for the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) to adopt the definition of "poultry" unanimously approved by the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA).

The lawmakers explained the differences in definition, "The current WOAH definition fails to appropriately distinguish commercial poultry involved in international trade from backyard or wild birds posing minuscule trade transmission risk. Over a year ago, the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) proposed a reasonable definition change that would rightly recognize neighbors gifting backyard poultry eggs to others as non-commercial. It would also exclude birds that are raised to be released at hunting preserves from being considered poultry for international trade purposes."

Additionally, the lawmakers detailed how the current definition is costing America's poultry producers.

"The current outdated definition is costing America's poultry producers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost exports through unwarranted trade disruptions enabled by WOAH's inadequate definition. There are countless examples across numerous states of isolated cases of HPAI detections in backyard or wild birds prompting unnecessary trade bans, even though they pose a minuscule threat of infecting commercial flocks. This past year alone, multiple states across the U.S. suffered nearly $900 million in disrupted overseas chicken, turkey, and egg sales,"they continued.

In closing, the cosigners urged the USDA to advocate for this proposed definition change to protect the United States' agricultural competitiveness.

"We firmly support this pragmatic change. After over a year of inaction from WOAH, we strongly encourage you to advance this reasonable proposal to limit subsequent trade disruptions. America's agricultural competitiveness depends on having fair, up-to-date global animal health rules, which would provide our producers with a level playing field,"they concluded.

Read the full letter, co-led by Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Representatives Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), here.

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