Support animal health staff, provide training, attend training, and carry out animal disease surveillance and laboratory activities to prevent, detect, and respond to animal health issues

This Cooperative Agreement award of $393,323.00 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care Federal Grant Program (CFDA 10.025) supports the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) in conducting animal disease surveillance and laboratory activities to prevent, detect, and respond to animal health issues. The award enables VDACS to support animal health staff, provide training, attend training, and carry out surveillance and laboratory work to maintain domestic food supply and international trade. The funding supports activities to educate industries, accredited veterinarians, and the public on disease surveillance, biosecurity, sample collection, and identification, with the ultimate goal of benefiting the public through a stable supply and pricing of animal agricultural products.

Continue to educate industries, accredited veterinarians and the public on disease surveillance, biosecurity, sample collection and identification. Deliverables and expected outcomes: completion of metrics as outlined in the workplans for each commodity. Completion and evaluation of exercises outlined in the plan to ensure readiness in the event of an actual disease incident. Intended beneficiary/IES: recipient, aphis, and agriculture industry to maintain domestic food supply and international trade. Ultimately, the public benefits from this agreement by maintaining a stable supply and pricing for animal agricultural products.