USDA poultry meeting set for Jan. 27

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has scheduled a meeting of the National Poultry Improvement Plan General Conference Committee for Jan. 27, 2010, from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd. NW, Atlanta, Ga.

The General Conference Committee acts as a liaison between the poultry industry and USDA in issues affecting poultry health. It includes representatives of state agencies and the poultry industry.

Meeting topics are:

• National Poultry Improvement Plan diamond anniversary conference
• Salmonella isolation and identification laboratory protocol
• Notifiable avian influenza
• Salmonella and baby poultry contact
• Experimental use of a live Mycoplasma synoviae vaccine in broiler breeders
• National Poultry Improvement Plan database

The public may attend the meeting, but not participate in discussions. Written statements on meeting topics may be filed with the committee at the meeting. They may also be sent before or after the meeting to Andrew R. Rhorer, senior coordinator, NPIP, VS, APHIS, USDA, 1498 Klondike Road, Suite 101, Conyers, GA 30094. Writers should refer to Docket No. APHIS-2009-0096.