The 2024-2025 umbrella cooperative agreement will provide funding for tennessee department of agriculture to use to work cooperatively with aphis veterinary services to support animal disease…

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) awarded the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Division of Animal Industries, a Cooperative Agreement valued at $240,388 effective April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026, under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025). The agreement funds collaborative animal disease surveillance, preparedness, and response activities in Tennessee, with focus on testing and surveillance for exotic, reportable, and regulatory disease concerns across avian (commercial and backyard), beef and dairy cattle, small ruminant, captive cervid, and swine industries. Key products and services include active and passive surveillance for priority diseases, testing of surveillance samples, data management and reporting, biosecurity audits at production facilities, domestic and foreign animal disease investigations, stakeholder outreach and education, and development and maintenance of animal disease incident preparedness and response plans.

The majority of funding supports compensation for Tennessee Department of Agriculture Veterinary Medical Officers (VMOs) and Animal Health Technicians (AHTs) conducting these surveillance and response activities. Additional funding supports foreign animal disease trainings for veterinarians, field skills courses for VMOs and AHTs, and travel to regional and national professional meetings including United States Animal Health Association and Southern Animal Health Association conferences. Successful completion of these activities is expected to enable the department to meet surveillance goals, manage disease investigation and trace data, minimize disease introduction risk through biosecurity enforcement, and detect animal disease occurrence across the state.

Activities

Specific activities that will be performed by recipients include active and passive surveillance for priority diseases in various animal species; testing of surveillance samples; surveillance data entry, management and reporting; biosecurity audits of production units and animal concentration points; domestic and foreign animal disease investigations and mitigation activities; outreach to and education for animal industry stakeholders about state/ federal animal disease programs; development and maintenance of animal disease incident preparedness and response plans. The majority of funding will be used for a percentage of compensation packages for TDA vmos and ahts, but this funding will also support FAD trainings for veterinarians, field skills courses for vmos and ahts, and regional and national participation and travel to usaha and saha meetings. Deliverables and expected outcomes: successful completion of the described activities will allow TDA to meet required program survei llance goals, enter and manage data and appropriately report associated data; contribute to disease and disease trace investigations; minimize risk for introduction of disease into animal production units or concentration points by practicing and enforcing proven biosecurity concepts; detect animal disease occurrences/ introductions early which will facilitate more effective and efficient mitigation; increase producer and other animal industry stakeholder's awareness, acceptance and engagement with animal disease programs, surveillance activities and use of proven biosecurity concepts; continue development of emergency preparedness and animal disease response plans; and, provide education and outreach to animal industry stakeholders on preparedness/ response planning which will hopefully, increase understanding and engagement by stakeholders in these topics.

Intended beneficiaries

The surveillance activities provide for early detection of specified animal diseases in tennessee which allows for a more effective and efficient response to detections. Outreach to, and education for producers, veterinarians and other industry stakeholders provides a better understanding of the needs for surveillance and disease management and allows them to engage more effectively in these activities. Outreach and education activities extend also to animal health, emergency preparedness and response planning which may allow stakeholders to contribute more and have more engagement with development and implementation of these plans. The award will also contribute to the nahln lab's ability to maintain testing infrastructure and surge capacity in the event of animal disease outbreaks. Other beneficiaries include consumers of animal agriculture products within kentucky, as well as outside of kentucky who will benefit from these efforts that contribute to decreased production losses, more efficient production, and lower costs to consumers. Subrecipient activities, if known or specified at time of award: no subrecipients are identified at this time.