The ongoing bird flu (highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza) outbreaks in commercial poultry and backyard flocks in the U.S.demonstrates that maintenance of extensive physical and human resources…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded a $250,000 Cooperative Agreement under the Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative (CFDA 10.304) to the University of Georgia Research Foundation. This award aims to maintain and enhance the testing and response capabilities of the Athens Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (AVDL) and the Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigative Laboratory (TVDIL) in Georgia.

The primary objectives are to rapidly detect, manage, and eradicate major animal disease outbreaks, such as avian influenza, African swine fever, classical swine fever, foot and mouth disease, and new castle disease. The funding will support activities in the areas of quality system management, staff training on foreign and emerging animal diseases, laboratory information system maintenance, enhancement of biocontainment and sample processing capabilities, and other integrated initiatives to strengthen the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) in Georgia. This award will enable the laboratories to sustain their proficiency in testing for high-consequence pathogens and maintain SARS-CoV-2 testing capacity for both animal and human samples through August 31, 2024.

The ongoing bird flu (highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza) outbreaks in commercial poultry and backyard flocks in the U.S.demonstrates that maintenance of extensive physical and human resources at the state level is essential for the USDA toefficiently detect, manage, and eradicate major disease outbreaks. This application aims at maintaining and enhancing thecapacity of the athens veterinary diagnostic laboratory (avdl) and the tifton veterinary diagnostic and investiative laboratory(tvdil) in georgia to test for and rapidly respond to animal disease outbreaks. The overall goals of the proposal are to enhancethe capability to rapidly respond to emerging or existing bioterrorist threats to animal health, to address emergency biologicaland chemical threats to animal agriculture and to ensure the security of the food supply. The laboratories will continue tomaintain testing and messaging proficiency for testing high consequence pathgenss that cause diseases such as avianinfluenza, african swine fever, classical swine fever, foot and mouth disease, swine influnza and new castle disease. Thelaboratories will also maintain capacity of sars-COV-2 testing of animal and human samples. To achieve the above goals, activities will be undertaken in five areas: 1) quality system; 2) staff training for foreign and emerging animal diseases; 3)laboratory information management system; 4) nahln sample handling, processing, and testing capacities (includingenhancement of biocontainment capabilities); and 6) other integrated activities in support of the goals of nahln andagricultural security. These activities will contribute towards maintaining and enhancing the laboratory capabilities and capacityto be an effective nahln level 1 laboratory system in georgia.