Cooperative Agreement AP24VSDB000C053

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care Federal Grant Program (CFDA 10.025) provides $109,984 to the University of Wisconsin - Madison to enhance next-generation sequencing (NGS) capabilities at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL). The funding will be used to acquire high-throughput instrumentation and develop workflows to rapidly identify novel pathogens that could threaten animal populations. This initiative aims to expand the WVDL's capacity for shotgun metagenomic sequencing, an essential tool for pathogen discovery and clinical disease management. The project will facilitate the laboratory's preparedness for emergency response during disease outbreak events by integrating NGS technologies with the WVDL's existing diagnostic capabilities. Key personnel at WVDL are committed to leading efforts for standardizing NGS quality parameters and sharing knowledge and protocols with the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) and American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) laboratories.