A new program centered at The Pennsylvania State University will soon be the first in the US to provide third-party training, proficiency testing and certification on the correct techniques for handling and transporting poultry. It will also provide a number of additional important benefits not typically found in poultry companies’ in-house programs, according to The Poultry Science Association (PSA).
Scheduled to launch in late spring, the Poultry Handling and Transportation Quality Assurance Program (PHTQA) will offer multiple one-day training sessions to transportation and catch crews on biosecurity, disease recognition, emergency planning, and the safe and humane handling of birds. With the exception of ducks, PHTQA will cover every segment of the poultry industry, including: day-old poultry, pullets, spent fowl, broilers, leghorn and broiler breeders, and turkeys.
The Poultry Handling and Transportation Quality Assurance Program is similar to the Pork Transportation and Quality Assurance Program developed by the National Pork Check-off Program. PHTQA training will initially focus on companies in the Northeast, though depending on interest, it may eventually serve as the foundation for a national program, according to Dr. Eva Wallner-Pendleton, PHTQA’s senior editor and project coordinator, and an avian pathologist and field investigator at Penn State’s Animal Diagnostic Laboratory.
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