When used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings, respectively, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) PUBLIC HATCHERY. Any establishment that regularly artificially hatches and sells or offers for sale to the public baby chicks or the young of any domestic fowl under six weeks of age or hatching eggs or that does custom hatching.

(2) CHICK DEALER or JOBBER. Any person, firm or corporation that buys baby chicks or turkey poults and sells or offers same for sale.

In order to promote the poultry industry in this state, the Department of Agriculture and Industries is hereby authorized to make such regulations as may be necessary to set up minimum standards for the operation of public hatcheries, to regulate chick dealers and jobbers, to provide standards and to regulate shipping into this state of baby chicks, turkey poults and hatching eggs and for the control and eradication of contagious and infectious diseases of poultry.

The Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, with approval of the State Board of Agriculture and Industries, is authorized and empowered to establish, conduct and maintain poultry disease diagnostic laboratories for the purpose of diagnosing, treating, eradicating, preventing and controlling infectious and contagious diseases of poultry. The laboratories provided for in this section shall be located at places in the State of Alabama where they will best serve the farmers engaged in the production of poultry, and such locations shall be selected by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries with approval of the State Board of Agriculture and Industries. Such laboratories shall be staffed and operated by qualified personnel who are employees of the state Department of Agriculture and Industries.

The Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, with the approval of the State Board of Agriculture and Industries, is hereby authorized to adopt, conduct and carry out a program or plan designed to prevent, eradicate and control infectious and contagious diseases of poultry in the State of Alabama, and such program shall be carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Industries.

The Department of Agriculture and Industries is hereby authorized to cooperate with other agencies for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this division, and to that end the commissioner is hereby authorized and empowered to enter into cooperative agreements with other agencies, departments and institutions of the State of Alabama and of the federal government.

For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this division, funds appropriated and made available under the general appropriations act for expenditure on a fiscal year basis for poultry disease control and eradication may be expended for the payment of salaries, equipment purchases and other expenses necessary and incident to the execution of the provisions of this division.

(a) The Legislature has ascertained and found and hereby declares that the disease avian influenza is a serious transmissible disease of all birds, for which there is no known cure, and that this disease has been diagnosed in several states of the United States. Any outbreak of this disease in Alabama could seriously jeopardize the entire poultry industry in Alabama.

(b) Any person knowingly or wantonly violating any laws or regulations duly promulgated by the State Board of Agriculture and Industries which were enacted for the prevention or eradication of the disease avian influenza shall be guilty of a Class C felony.

(a) No person, firm or corporation shall operate a public hatchery, and no chick dealer or jobber shall operate within this state without first obtaining an annual permit from the state Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries to so operate. The fee to be paid for such annual permit shall be established by the Board of Agriculture and Industries not to exceed sixty dollars ($60), which shall be due and payable on January 1 of each year; and, unless such permit fee is paid within 30 days, a 15 percent delinquent penalty shall be added. All permit fees, including delinquent penalty fees, shall be paid into the Agricultural Fund of the State Treasury. The permit may be revoked for a violation of this article or the regulations promulgated under this article.

(b) Any person who is refused a permit or whose permit is revoked may appeal from the decision of such commissioner to the State Board of Agriculture and Industries by a written demand for such appeal, which appeal must be heard at the next meeting of the State Board of Agriculture and Industries. The board shall enter judgment as it deems proper from the facts.

(c) The action of the board in refusing to grant or in revoking any permit may be reviewed by the circuit court of the county in which the hatchery, chick dealer or jobber is located or resides, upon a complaint being filed in the circuit court, accompanied by a bond to be approved by the register or clerk, within 15 days after notice to the applicant or permittee of the board's decision. The complaint shall be styled in the name of the applicant or permittee as plaintiff against the commissioner, as defendant, and shall set forth the action complained of and request its reversal. The commissioner shall serve an answer within 30 days after the complaint is served upon him or her. The case shall be heard de novo by the court and it shall be determined from the evidence whether the refusal or revocation of the permit is or is not justified under the provisions of this article, and judgment shall be accordingly entered, subject to the right of appeal, which shall lie as in other civil cases, which decision shall be binding upon the parties.

(d) Appeal rights provided in this section shall not suspend the action of the commissioner in the revocation or refusal of a permit.

All baby chicks or turkey poults and hatching eggs sold or offered for sale by public hatcheries and chick dealers or jobbers as a regular part of their business shall originate in flocks that meet the requirements of the national poultry improvement plan as administered by the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries and the regulations issued by authority of this article for the control of pullorum disease; provided, that nothing in this article shall require any hatchery to adopt the national poultry improvement plan.

The purpose of this division is to control, eradicate and prevent the spread of contagious and infectious diseases of poultry through the proper destruction and disposal of dead poultry, unhatched or unused eggs and other poultry waste by requiring commercial growers of poultry and commercial hatcheries to be equipped with and to use disposal facilities as provided in this division.

Every person who raises, grows, feeds or otherwise produces poultry for commercial purposes and every person who operates a commercial poultry hatchery for the production of baby chicks and turkey poults shall be equipped with adequate facilities for the handling, destruction and disposal of all dead poultry, poultry carcasses, unhatched or unused eggs and other poultry waste.

The State Board of Agriculture and Industries is hereby authorized to prescribe the size, type, depth and dimensions for any pit required for the burying of dead poultry, to require and prescribe chemical or disinfectant treatments to be applied, the use of incinerators or other burning methods and any other recommended methods or facilities for the handling, destruction and disposal of dead poultry, poultry carcasses, unhatched or unused eggs and other poultry waste, which facilities must be kept and maintained by every commercial poultry grower and every commercial hatchery in Alabama. The handling, destruction and disposal of dead poultry, poultry carcasses, unhatched or unused eggs and other poultry waste shall be performed by the use of the required facilities in a manner prescribed by the State Board of Agriculture and Industries pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by said board for this purpose.

(a) This division shall be administered and enforced by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries through the facilities of the Department of Agriculture and Industries, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, the State Veterinarian, his associates and assistants or other authorized employees or agents of the Department of Agriculture and Industries shall be authorized to quarantine and prohibit the removal or other disposition of any poultry and eggs from premises, buildings, vehicles or other places unless such poultry and eggs are produced on premises equipped with disposal facilities as prescribed by the State Board of Agriculture and Industries as authorized and required under Section 2-16-41. Quarantine orders issued under this section shall be issued in the same manner as now authorized by law for the quarantine of livestock infected or infested with or exposed to contagious and infectious diseases of livestock.

(b) The State Veterinarian, his associates and assistants or any other authorized employees of the Department of Agriculture and Industries, are hereby authorized to enter any place or upon any premises or into any buildings or other enclosures where poultry is produced, fed or kept or upon the premises of any commercial poultry hatchery for the purpose of performing any inspection work or duties necessary for the enforcement of this division.

All baby chicks, turkey poults and hatching eggs shipped or otherwise brought into this state shall originate in flocks that meet the minimum requirements of pullorum disease control provided for under this article and the regulations issued by authority of this article and shall be accompanied by a certificate approved by the official state agency or the livestock sanitation officials of the state of state of origin certifying same.

Every public hatchery and chick dealer or jobber shall keep such records of operation as the regulations of the Department of Agriculture and Industries may require for the proper inspection of said hatchery and chick dealer or jobber.

The state Department of Agriculture and Industries shall conduct a program in accordance with the national poultry improvement plan sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Said department is authorized to accept fees to be fixed by the State Board of Agriculture and Industries for services rendered to poultrymen and hatcherymen who participate in the national poultry improvement plan, said fees to be paid to the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries and placed to the credit of the Agricultural Fund of the Department of Agriculture and Industries.

Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provisions of this article or any rule or regulation duly established by authority of this article or shall operate or engage in business without a permit as required by Section 2-16-3 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

All fines paid under this article shall be transmitted to the Department of Agriculture and Industries for deposit in the State Treasury to the credit of the Agricultural Fund.