The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has proposed a rule to amend Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations by introducing comprehensive standards for the care, handling, treatment, and transportation of birds not bred specifically for research. The rule, published in February 2022, would affect a range of stakeholders, including dealers, breeders, exhibitors, transporters, and research facilities, with the aim of ensuring humane treatment and welfare of birds not previously covered by existing AWA regulations. Notably, birds bred for research remain generally exempt, but facilities using wild-caught birds or those used for exhibition and as pets would fall under the new requirements.
The rule introduces performance-based standards to allow flexibility for the diverse needs of different bird species. Key provisions address facility construction and maintenance, animal identification, recordkeeping, social and environmental enrichment (including psychological well-being), feeding and watering, sanitation, and specific requirements for housing, especially regarding social species, aquatic or wading birds, and breeding birds. Transportation standards are updated to align with bird-specific welfare needs, focusing on climate control, inspection intervals, and species-appropriate care during transit. Although the proposed rule broadly follows AWA standards for other animals, it includes nuanced modifications for avian-specific considerations, including definitions of terms such as “poultry,” “farm animal,” and “exhibitor.” Research facilities would need to update procedures and documentation accordingly, but most existing requirements for IACUCs and field studies remain unchanged. The proposed regulation may pose operational challenges for facilities, particularly in areas such as cleaning naturalistic enclosures and accommodating birds’ species-specific social and psychological needs. Comments on the proposal were invited by April 25, 2022, as part of an ongoing consultation process.
