Assist and support the state of arkansas in monitoring, surveillance and other activities with the goal of preventing and/or recognizing the presence of both foreign animal and program disease in…

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) awarded a Cooperative Agreement totaling $492,473 to the Livestock & Poultry Commission Arkansas, 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 supports Arkansas's animal health surveillance and disease prevention infrastructure by funding Livestock and Slaughter Inspector (LSI) salaries, diagnostic testing costs for livestock and poultry, office staffing, and information technology and data management systems. Key deliverables include consistent LSI presence and monitoring activities at livestock markets, visual disease surveillance while observing market operations, reporting on animal numbers and market conditions, and submission of monitoring records to the Arkansas Poultry and Livestock Division (APLD).

The award addresses critical animal health needs across Arkansas's substantial livestock and poultry industries, including the state's internationally significant poultry sector. Specific commodity-focused activities encompass cattle health monitoring, scrapie and small ruminant surveillance, emergency response preparedness and training, and National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) testing and surveillance for poultry. Data collection and maintenance systems support regulatory activities and disease management across livestock markets, farms, and commercial poultry facilities. The program's beneficiaries include domestic and international consumers who depend on safe poultry and livestock products from Arkansas operations.

Assist and support the state of arkansas in monitoring, surveillance and other activities with the goal of preventing and/or recognizing the presence of both foreign animal and program disease in livestock and poultry across the state. This includes but is not limited to livestock markets, farms, and commercial poultry facilities for both regulatory and disease management purposes. Activities include but are not limited to supporting LSI salary, testing costs for both livestock and poultry, salaries for office staffing and for IT and data management. Data will be maintained and easily accessible, records in markets will be monitored for accuracy as well as completion, market facilities and equipment are also included in the monitoring. State employees participated in regulatory activities both routine and emergent. Deliverables include but are not limited to lsis being in markets on a consistent basis and performing work for the state and VS as described in the agreement. Reporting numbers, drive INS, and monitoring for disease visually while walking the pens and observing the work by the market veterinarian. Reports are completed and submitted to the administrative branch of apld, all poultry testing is stored with the npip director for alpd. Tables are created and maintained for testing results. There are specific requirements within the umbrella for all the commodity groups in VS, including but not limited to cattle health, scrapie and small ruminants, emergency response preparedness and training, as well as poultry and npip testing and surveillance and response. Arkansas has a robust poultry industry as well as significant cattle numbers. The poultry compartment includes chicken broilers and breeders, as well as one of the only two primary breeder companies in the world. The economy is heavily dependent on this industry. The beneficiaries are consumers across the US as well as internationally. Both poultry products and hatching eggs are shipped internationally as well as within the US. AR plays a large role in both US and international food security. There are no sub awardees.