Canadian Hatchery Federation Sector
Sector Director - Nik Zylstra Email: nikzylstra@cpepc.ca Tel: 613 724-6605 ext. 6
Sector Directors:
Jeff McDowell - Hybrid Turkeys / Hendrix Genetics
Orville Friesen – Exceldor cooperative - Winnipeg, MB
The Canadian Hatchery Federation sector of the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council represents the interests of 47 broiler, egg-type and turkey hatcheries in 9 provinces.
Operationally,
hatchery sector members are represented by one of eight
regional Directors at the sector level, and two of those
Directors represent the sector on the CPEPC Board.
The latest industry figures indicate that
600,000,000 chicks and poults will be placed nationally
this year. CPEPC members will place 564,000,000 or 94.0%
of those. This activity directly employs 2,500 Canadian
workers, and represents an investment in plant and
equipment of approximately $250 million. The value of
these chicks when sold to producers will be in excess of
$310 million.
In meeting the needs of Canadian
broiler growers, egg laying operations, and ultimately
processors and consumers, hatchery members source
hatching eggs for incubation both domestically and
internationally. Under the current NAFTA and GATT/WTO
Agreements, 21.1% of the total Canadian broiler hatching
egg requirement is sourced from outside Canada and
enters the country duty free. The remaining 78.9% of our
requirement is purchased from Canadian broiler hatching
egg producers.
Most egg-type and turkey
hatcheries are somewhat different as they own their
breeder flocks. No border controls exist for these
commodities and our members have been increasing export
sales in recent years.
In an ongoing effort to reduce antibiotic use and
resistance, hatcheries will discontinue the preventative
use of category 2 antibiotics, which have high
importance for human health, by January 2019.
Preventative use of category 1 antibiotics (very high
importance for human health) was discontinued in 2014.
Animal Welfare
Canadian hatcheries follow strict, independently audited, evidence-based animal welfare standards that are regularly updated and are amongst the best in the world.
The Canadian Hatchery Federation (CHF) animal welfare program was last updated in December 2020 and as of July 1, 2021 all CHF members must conduct annual audits under this program.
The program was developed based on the National Farm Animal Council’s
Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Hatching Eggs, Breeders, Chickens, and Turkeys.
You can find a copy of our animal welfare program
here.