The national milk producers federation (nmpf) proposes to conduct a GAP analysis and create a white paper to describe the current industry capabilities, gaps, and suggested guidance for industry and…

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) was awarded a $227,585 Cooperative Agreement by 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 program (CFDA 10.025). The grant will fund a gap analysis and development of a white paper to describe the current industry capabilities, gaps, and suggested guidance for implementing a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) diagnostic assay using bulk tank milk samples for herd-level disease surveillance. This will be accomplished through stakeholder forums, interviews with FMD experts, and a literature review. NMPF will partner with Preventalytics LLC and Dr. Jason Lombard on this project, which aims to support animal movement decisions in the event of an FMD outbreak.

The national milk producers federation (nmpf) proposes to conduct a GAP analysis and create a white paper to describe the current industry capabilities, gaps, and suggested guidance for industry and policy makers to implement a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) diagnostic assay using bulk tank milk samples to provide herd-level disease surveillance in the event of an outbreak. The white paper will be based upon stakeholder forums, interviews with FMD experts, and a literature review of publications focused on the FMD bulk milk tank test building on USDA's 2017 publication describing potential uses for the test. This proposal with support topic 4: supporting animal movement decisions in a disease outbreak. Step one is to convene two stakeholder forums with industry stakeholders including dairy producers, dairy cooperatives and processors, milk haulers, milk testing labs, state and federal animal health officials and national animal health laboratory network (nahln) lab directors and staff to better understand industry questions, concerns, capabilities of sample collection, submission, frequency of testing, nahln lab capabilities, surge capacity, deviation, proficiency testing, and test result interpretation and reporting as a herd level surveillance tool. Step two is connecting with researchers who have done continued diagnostic assay work, interviewing FMD experts in the U.S. And abroad, then develop a white paper describing the current industry capabilities, gaps, and suggested guidance for industry and policy makers. Stakeholders, including federal animal health officials, will be invited to review. The last step will be conducting outreach with stakeholder groups to socialize the white paper to generate further discussion and awareness, identify action items, and gather additional feedback. The above tasks will be accomplished in partnership with two sub awardees: DR. Danelle bickett-weddle of preventalytics LLC and DR. Jason lombard.