Texas poultry compliance runs through three agencies that never share a form: the Texas Animal Health Commission for bird health and movement, the Texas Department of Agriculture for eggs and processing, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for CAFO coverage. Each has its own thresholds, its own cadence, and its own retention rule. Poultry Log's Texas catalog records all three layers with their agencies, authorities, triggers, cadences, and official source links, reviewed against the TAHC, TDA, and TCEQ program portals.
Animal Health Layer: TAHC
- Entry records - poultry, hatching eggs, or other fowl entering Texas must meet TAHC entry requirements under Texas Agriculture Code Chapter 161, including a permit or Certificate of Veterinary Inspection and any testing required for the class of bird or origin. The catalog records a specific operational detail: live poultry entering from an avian-influenza-affected state must have a negative test within 72 hours of entry and specific TAHC permission, and movers must contact TAHC before movement.
- Stock shows and exhibitions - poultry exhibited at a Texas show must meet TAHC health requirements, enforced at check-in. Birds from a participating NPIP flock may rely on program status instead of a separate 90-day Pullorum-Typhoid test, but the exhibition documentation requirement still applies.
- Hatcheries, dealers, and breeding flocks - a Texas hatchery, chick dealer, or seller of hatching eggs must participate in the state poultry health program, maintain Pullorum-Typhoid and NPIP documentation, and keep source, lot, and testing records. Chicks, poults, or hatching eggs offered for sale must come from Pullorum-Typhoid-clean or NPIP-participating breeding flocks, tested at least annually, with reactors removed.
- Reportable disease and disposal - a suspected or confirmed reportable poultry disease event, including avian influenza, must be reported immediately to TAHC. Carcasses must be disposed of promptly by an approved method (burial, composting, incineration, rendering, or other approved disposal) under Texas Agriculture Code Chapter 161 and TCEQ disposal requirements.
Egg and Processing Layer: TDA
Under Texas Agriculture Code Chapter 132 and Texas Administrative Code Chapter 12, a person who grades, candles, packages, or sells eggs as a dealer must hold a TDA license (TDA Form REG-200, displayed at the point of sale) and meet grading, candling, refrigeration, and labeling requirements. The catalog records a farm-fresh exemption for a producer who sells only eggs from their own hens without purchasing eggs from others, but notes the eggs must still be clean, wholesome, and honestly represented, and graded eggs must be labeled and refrigerated. For poultry processing, a producer must use a licensed or USDA-inspected establishment unless every condition of Texas's on-farm or custom exemption is met, including processing only its own birds, sanitary conditions, required labeling, and any annual bird limits, with slaughter and sales records kept.
Environmental Layer: TCEQ
A poultry operation that is a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation must obtain NPDES or state CAFO permit coverage before discharging or operating its waste management system, implementing a nutrient management plan and keeping production-area and land-application records. The catalog records the exemption thresholds explicitly: an operation below the large CAFO threshold (fewer than 125,000 broilers or pullets, or 82,000 laying hens without a wet handling system, or 55,000 turkeys in grow-out) that does not discharge is generally not required to have a CAFO permit, though it may need coverage if designated. Records are commonly kept five years, and covered CAFOs submit an annual report to TCEQ under 40 CFR 122.42(e)(4) covering permitted animal inventory, manure and process-wastewater generation and transfers, nutrient-plan and applied acreage, discharges, and plan certification.
Where Poultry Log Fits
Poultry Log's Texas catalog carries all three layers with official source links and form templates, in the same workspace as the daily records that feed them. The federal CAFO layer is covered in the CAFO permit guide, egg records in the wholesale egg dealer records guide, and the NPIP layer in the NPIP participation records guide. Confirm current requirements with TAHC, TDA, and TCEQ; completing a checklist does not certify legal compliance. Start free at poultrylog.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
What permits do Texas poultry farms need?
It depends on the operation and the activity. Texas layers animal health duties under TAHC (entry permits, hatchery and breeding-flock programs, reportable disease notice, carcass disposal), egg and processing duties under TDA (dealer licenses, shell egg handling, processing exemptions), and environmental coverage under TCEQ (CAFO NPDES permits with nutrient management plans). Poultry Log's Texas catalog records each requirement with its agency and official source.
What are Texas's CAFO thresholds for poultry?
The Poultry Log Texas catalog records the large CAFO exemption thresholds as fewer than 125,000 broilers or pullets, or 82,000 laying hens without a wet handling system, or 55,000 turkeys in grow-out, under the TCEQ CAFO/NPDES program and 40 CFR Part 122. An operation below threshold that does not discharge is generally not required to hold a CAFO permit, though designation can change that.
How fast must Texas poultry enterers test for avian influenza?
Live poultry entering Texas from an avian-influenza-affected state must have a negative test within 72 hours of entry and specific TAHC permission, and movers must contact TAHC before movement, under Texas Agriculture Code Chapter 161 and TAHC entry requirements.