A revised code of practice for the care and handling of hatching eggs, breeders, chickens, and turkeys was released last week.

Code development committee chair Vernon Froese says they didn't completely revamp the code, but they made some updates in certain areas, such as catching and loading processes when handling birds.

Froese says it's important to update this code of practice in order maintain animal welfare and meet consumer expectations.

"We are very conscious of that," he says, "farmers are doing a good job of taking care of their animals. It is important, I mean, it's something the consumer expects of us, and also we as farmers, if we want to make a living out of this and make this a sustainable business, we have to take care of our animals."

Froese says these revisions will go toward helping shape the animal care programs developed under the national and provincial commodity boards. The poultry code is the eighth code of practice updated through National Farm Animal Care Council's code development process.