Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in El Salvador?

The national sources we read don't settle registration or who decides where hens can live. Here's what they do say.

Read from 5 official sources25 passages quotedChecked October 29, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Not established

National keeping rule

No rule identified

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Not established

A sourced reading of national law in El Salvador, not legal advice. Local ordinances and zoning, HOA rules, and any local rooster or coop limits aren't covered here yet: check your local code before you get hens.

Keeping your flock

These findings cover the national scope stated below. They do not determine whether chickens are allowed at a particular home. City zoning, property restrictions and other local rules are outside this research.

Registering as a poultry keeper

Not established from the sources checked

Jurisdiction: El Salvador

Applies to: MAG's power to register and authorise primary production units and establishments related to animal production, and the infraction for keeping animals that pose an animal-health risk without the documents MAG requires.

What the checked sources say

  • MAG registers and authorises the operation of primary production units and establishments related to animal production; no rule requiring a backyard flock to register, and no flock-size threshold, was found in the texts read.
  • Keeping animals that pose an animal-health risk without the legal documents MAG requires, showing their origin and health condition, is listed as an infraction.

Authority: Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG)

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

Bird-flu housing orders

Current status needs rechecking

Check the agency's own page (not a status page)

Orders can change between checks. A missed check or an expired order does not establish that no order applies.

Housing-order finding as checked on 2026-11-08

The scope and conditions below are a dated record, not confirmation of today's position.

No rule identified in this research

This does not establish that no authority can order poultry to be housed or confined.

Uses housing orders in this scope: Not established from the sources checked.

Jurisdiction: El Salvador

Applies to: MAG's powers to declare a state of sanitary alert or an animal-health emergency and to impose quarantine on animals suspected of notifiable disease, and keepers' duty to report disease.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No standing national order to house backyard birds was identified; this does not establish that none exists.

What the checked sources say

  • MAG may declare a state of sanitary alert by Ministerial Resolution.
  • MAG may declare a state of emergency in animal health by Executive Agreement when epidemiological information so indicates.
  • MAG may impose quarantine periods and places on animals suspected of a notifiable disease.
  • Owners, occupiers and keepers of animals must inform MAG immediately when diseases appear.
  • Current status is not shown here; check MAG.
Checked
Recheck due

Historical evidence, as checked

These quotations record what was checked on the dates shown. They do not confirm an order's current status.

  • Declarar estado de alerta fitosanitaria o sanitaria, mediante Resolución Ministerial.

    DL 282, Art. 42, letter a · Checked

  • Declarar estado de emergencia en sanidad vegetal o salud animal, mediante Acuerdo Ejecutivo en el Ramo de Agricultura y Ganadería, cuando la información epidemiológica así lo indique.

    DL 282, Art. 42, letter b · Checked

  • Realizar la evaluación clínica, la imposición de períodos y lugares cuarentenarios a aquellos animales, con motivo de sospecha de infección o infestación de enfermedades de notificación obligatoria.

    DL 282, Art. 26, letter f · Checked

  • Los propietarios, arrendatarios, usufructuarios, ocupantes o encargados a cualquier título, de bienes muebles e inmuebles, cultivos y animales,

    DL 282, Art. 10 (opening) · Checked

  • tienen la obligación de informar inmediatamente al MAG el aparecimiento de plagas infestaciones, infecciones y enfermedades

    DL 282, Art. 10 · Checked

  • Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería

    MAG home page, site title · Checked

Small-flock welfare minimums

Not established from the sources checked

Jurisdiction: El Salvador

Applies to: The 2022 Ley Especial de Protección y Bienestar Animal (companion and wild animals; duties for breeding centres of companion or production animals) and MAG's power to set welfare measures for production animals.

Outside this finding's scope

  • In the texts read, the 2022 welfare law's duties for production animals bind breeding centres; whether hens kept at home count as companion animals or as production animals under that law was not established.

What the checked sources say

  • The 2022 welfare law's object is the welfare and protection of companion animals and wild animals; it defines production animals as domestic species raised for human consumption and use that are not companion animals.
  • Whoever establishes a breeding centre for companion or production animals must provide welfare and basic conditions such as food, water, a suitable environment, veterinary care and disease prevention and treatment.
  • MAG may issue measures on the welfare of production animals in production, transport and marketing, among others.
  • Read from the welfare law as reformed in June 2023; later reforms were not checked.

The official wording

  • LEY ESPECIAL DE PROTECCIÓN Y BIENESTAR ANIMAL

    DL 276 (2022), title line (Asamblea text) · Checked

  • La presente Ley tiene como objeto garantizar el bienestar, la protección y el buen cuido de los animales de compañía y a los animales silvestres,

    DL 276 (2022), Art. 1 · Checked

  • ANIMALES DE COMPAÑÍA: PERROS, GATOS U OTROS ANIMALES DOMÉSTICOS, COMÚNMENTE DENOMINADOS TAMBIÉN COMO "MASCOTAS"; QUE POR SU CONDICIÓN NATURAL CONVIVEN EN COMPAÑÍA Y DEPENDENCIA DEL SER HUMANO, REPRESENTANDO UN VALOR AFECTIVO PARA ÉSTE.

    DL 276, Art. 4, letter e · Checked

  • ANIMALES DE PRODUCCIÓN: ESPECIES DOMÉSTICAS QUE SON ESPECIALMENTE CRIADAS BAJO LA DEPENDENCIA DEL SER HUMANO, PARA DESTINARLAS Y UTILIZARLAS PARA EL CONSUMO Y APROVECHAMIENTO DEL SER HUMANO, QUE NO CONSTITUYEN ANIMALES DE COMPAÑÍA.

    DL 276, definitions article, letter g · Checked

  • Art. 48.- QUIEN ESTABLEZCA UN CENTRO PARA LA CRÍA DE ANIMALES DE COMPAÑÍA O ANIMALES DE PRODUCCIÓN ESTARÁ OBLIGADO A CUMPLIR LO SIGUIENTE:

    DL 276, Art. 48 (opening) · Checked

  • PROCURAR EL BIENESTAR Y LAS CONDICIONES BÁSICAS PARA LA VIDA DEL ANIMAL COMO ALIMENTO, AGUA, AMBIENTE PROPICIO, ATENCIÓN VETERINARIA, PREVENCIÓN Y TRATAMIENTO DE ENFERMEDADES;

    DL 276, Art. 48, letter b · Checked

  • 27) Dictar las medidas relativas al bienestar de animales de producción, aplicables al ámbito de producción, faenado, transporte, comercialización, investigación, trabajo, recreación o deporte.

    DL 282, Art. 4, numeral 27 · Checked

  • D. O. N° 33 Tomo N° 434 Fecha: 16 de febrero de 2022

    DL 276, publication note at the end of the Asamblea text · Checked

  • D. L. No. 775, 20 DE JUNIO DE 2023; D. O. No. 116, T. 439, 22 DE JUNIO DE 2023.

    DL 276, reform note at the end of the Asamblea text · Checked

National rules on keeping poultry

No rule identified in this research

Jurisdiction: El Salvador

Applies to: Municipal competence over the keeping of domestic and wild animals under the Código Municipal (text with reforms to 27 March 2017).

Outside this finding's scope

  • No national rule on whether chickens may be kept at home was identified in the national texts read; this does not establish that none exists.

What the checked sources say

  • Under the Código Municipal (text with reforms to 27 March 2017), municipalities are competent to authorise and regulate the keeping of domestic and wild animals, and regulate their matters by ordinances and regulations; later reforms were not checked.
  • Municipalities are among the bodies that must enforce the 2022 welfare law.
  • Check the municipality's ordinances.

The official wording

This does not establish that keeping is unrestricted or that all rules are local.

Selling eggs in El Salvador? →License, small-flock line, markets and cartons, on their own page.Selling: License: not stated

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in El Salvador?
Registration: not established. The finding covers: MAG's power to register and authorise primary production units and establishments related to animal production, and the infraction for keeping animals that pose an animal-health risk without the documents MAG requires. Authority: Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG).
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in El Salvador?
The national sources we read don't settle it, though they name the bodies shown under “National rules on keeping poultry” on this page. Check your local rules before you get hens.
Do I have to keep my hens indoors for bird flu in El Salvador?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. This page links the agency's own page to check; it is not a status page.

Allowed where you live? Then keep the records.

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