The 2026 MN department of agriculture hpai emergency cooperative agreement funding will contribute to payment for unexpected costs a rising from the disease response to the highly pathogenic avian…

The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service awarded the Minnesota Department of Agriculture a $2.040 million Cooperative Agreement on October 1, 2025, under CFDA 10.025 (Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care) to cover emergency response costs arising from the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in Minnesota that began in September 2025.

The award funds state responder overtime, personnel travel and lodging expenses, personal protection equipment and disposable disease response supplies, shipping costs, and laboratory costs incurred by Minnesota's National Animal Health Laboratory Network facilities. Minnesota Department of Agriculture responders conduct quarantine issuance and notification, disease surveillance in control areas and surveillance zones, biosecurity monitoring on infected premises, monitoring of infected poultry euthanasia and carcass disposal, monitoring of cleaning and disinfection of infected premises, approval of permits for movement of feed, supplies and products into or out of control areas, stakeholder outreach, response to sick bird calls, environmental sampling, real-time disease response status reporting, and data entry and incident document management.

The stated deliverables aim to facilitate a timely return to normal poultry production and trade within Minnesota and with other state trading partners, encourage and monitor robust biosecurity of production facilities to minimize further HPAI transmission, facilitate return to production by infected premises at the earliest opportunity, maintain stakeholder and consumer outreach and education, and sustain HPAI surveillance and investigation of suspicious sick bird calls to enable earliest detection should HPAI re-emerge or be reintroduced.

Period of performance runs October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, with place of performance in Minnesota.

The 2026 MN department of agriculture hpai emergency cooperative agreement funding will contribute to payment for unexpected costs a rising from the disease response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in minnesota that began in september, 2025. These costs included state responder overtime, personnel travel and lodging expenses, personal protection equipment (PPE) and other dispo sable disease response supplies, various shipping costs and unexpected costs generated by the minnesota nahln (national animal health laboratory network) labs that contributed substantially to response efforts, such as lab overtime costs, shipping costs, etc. Acti vities to be performed: activities performed by MN responders include issuance and notification of state's quarantines; disease surveillance in control areas and surveillance zones; monitoring of biosecurity on infected premises; monitoring of euthanasia of infected poultry and disposal of carcasses; monitoring of cleaning and disinfection (c & d) of infected premises; approval of permits for movement of feed, supplies and products into or out of control areas; stakeholder outreach; response to sick bird calls; environmental sampling; real time reporting of disease response status; data entry and incident document management. Deliverables and expected outcomes: cooperator activities will facilitate a timely return to normal poultry production/ trade within the state and with other state trading partners to the extent possible under the circumstances; encourages and monitors robust biosecurity of production facilities to minimize further transmission of hpai; facilitates return to production by infected premises at the earliest possible opportunity; maintains outreach and education to stakeholders and consumers; and maintains hpai surveillance and investigation of suspicious sick bird calls to allow earliest detection should hpai RE-emerge or be RE-introduced. Intended beneficiary(IES): rapid and effective response to hpai outbreaks in minnesota minimizes further transmission of disease to other premises and minimizes the impact, to the extent possible, to agriculture trade within minnesota and with other states. This benefits the minnesota poultry industry, as well as consumers, who continue to have access to poultry and poultry products produced within the state. Subrecipient activities if known or specified at the time of the award: the minnesota nahln laboratory contributes to hpai surveillance testing within the state. This serves to exercise the response capabilities and messaging of test results to emrs by both laboratories. Equally important, the nahln laboratory testing allows for timely results on surveillance testing in control areas/ surveillance zones and testing in conjunction with sick bird calls/ foreign animal disease investigations.