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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia officials are pleading with the USDA to prioritize a petition to the World Organization of Animal Health.

In May, more than 50 congressmen penned a letter to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) “to prioritize petitioning the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) to revise its definition of ‘poultry’ so as to ensure continued commercial poultry exports in the event of a detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HP AI) in a noncommercial backyard flock or a hunting preserve.”

The letter states, “The current outdated definition is costing America’s poultry producers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost exports through unwarranted trade disruptions enabled by WOAH’s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 HP AI detections in backyard or wild birds prompting unnecessary trade bans, even though they pose a miniscule 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.”

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper is the latest person to join in the fight to request a change in the group’s definition of poultry.

WOAH defines poultry as “all birds reared or kept in captivity for the production of any commercial animal products or for breeding for this purpose, fighting cocks used for any purpose, and all birds used for restocking supplies of game or for breeding for this purpose until they are released from captivity.”

Harper says there needs to be a distinction between commercial and noncommercial poultry in the definition.

Georgia is the number one producer of poultry in the nation. An estimated three in four counties produce poultry.

Harper said an outbreak raised for release among hunting birds cost the state an estimated $300 million in 2023.

“As the nation’s leading poultry-producing state, WOAH’s overly broad definition of poultry has negatively impacted Georgia poultry producers and the thousands of Georgians who make their living in our poultry industry for too long. Simply put, WOAH’s current position that an HPAI detection in birds raised for release on hunting preserves or a backyard poultry flock should trigger the same response as a detection in a commercial operation defies logic, and I’m proud to join this bipartisan group of lawmakers across the country pushing for commonsense reforms to support American agriculture, empower American farmers, and protect American jobs,” said Harper.