AN ACT to update north carolina's meat inspection act to be equivalent to federal standards by exempting ostriches from inspection fees, exempting rabbits from the poultry products inspection act, and chaNGING THE THRESHOLDS UNDER the poultry producer exemption for processing poultry products for interstate commerce.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 106‑549.39(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	Inspection Fees. – The Commissioner may establish a fee at an hourly rate to be paid by an establishment preparing an animal listed in this subsection as a meat food product. The fee shall be credited to the Department as a departmental receipt and applied to the cost of inspecting these animals to be used for food. The animals whose inspection is subject to the fee imposed under this subsection are:
(1)	Bison.
	"
SECTION 2.  G.S. 106‑549.51A is repealed.
SECTION 3.  G.S. 106‑549.62(c) reads as rewritten:
"(c)	The exemptions provided for in subdivisions (a)(6) and (7) above shall not apply if the poultry producer or other person engages in the current calendar year in the business of buying or selling any poultry or poultry products other than as specified in such subdivisions. No exemption under subdivisions (a)(6) or (7) or subsection (b) shall apply to any poultry producer or other person who slaughters or processes the products of more than 20,000 birds of all species during the calendar year for which this exemption is being applied."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 106‑549.62(e) reads as rewritten:
"(e)	The provisions of this Article shall not apply to poultry producers with respect to poultry of their own raising on their own farms if (i) such producers slaughter not more than 1,000 birds of all species during the calendar year for which this exemption is being determined; (ii) such poultry producers do not engage in buying or selling poultry products other than those produced from poultry raised on their own farms; and  (iii) such poultry moves only in intrastate commerce."

SECTION 5.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 4th day of June, 2009.

	s/	 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved 4:25 p.m. this 15th day of June, 2009