Laws and Regulations Governing Backyard Poultry in the United States

When a veterinarian is presented with the task of caring for a client’s backyard flock, many daunting obstacles will eventually become evident, including questions of legal and regulatory requirements and obligations. While the appropriateness of whether or not to extend your professional services to these clients is a personal choice, legal requirements of the veterinarian and your client are mandatory. Violations of law may have criminal consequences and regulatory violations may carry punishments of fines and/or reprimands. It is even possible for a client to have their backyard flock depopulated and/or quarantined against their will. As in almost every area of modern veterinary practice, civil liability is always a threat. For the veterinarian, there is no substantial legal requirement specific to practicing on poultry other than state licensure. Providing standard of care to backyard poultry is the primary issue of concern and this determination falls squarely within each state’s veterinary licensing body. While backyard flocks are gaining in popularity with a concurrent rise in the number of veterinarians seeing such patients, these relationships are still relatively rare within a given practice area, even in major metropolitan cities. If a standard of care complaint is lodged with a state licensing board, its members must decide whose standards you will be held against. For instance, if a small flock under your care succumbs to Marek’s Disease, any commercial poultry veterinarian would consider it standard practice to have had a vaccination protocol in place. While it would seem unreasonable to hold a veterinarian who