The 2026 north carolina department of agriculture hpai emergency cooperative agreement funding will contribute to payment for unexpected costs arising from the disease response to the highly…

The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service awarded a $308,541 cooperative agreement to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services on November 17, 2025, under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025) to fund emergency response costs arising from the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak that began in North Carolina in November 2025.

Funding covers state responder overtime, personnel travel and lodging expenses, personal protective equipment and disposable disease response supplies, response equipment, and contractor support. North Carolina responders will issue and notify state quarantines, conduct disease surveillance in control areas and surveillance zones, monitor biosecurity on infected premises, oversee euthanasia of infected poultry and carcass disposal, monitor cleaning and disinfection of infected premises, approve permits for movement of feed and supplies into or out of control areas, conduct stakeholder outreach, respond to sick bird calls, perform environmental sampling, provide real-time reporting of disease response status, and manage data entry and incident documentation. Deliverables include facilitating timely return to normal poultry production and trade within North Carolina and with other states, encouraging and monitoring robust biosecurity to minimize further transmission, enabling infected premises to return to production at the earliest opportunity, maintaining stakeholder and consumer outreach and education, and sustaining HPAI surveillance and investigation of suspicious sick bird reports to enable earliest detection of re-emergence or re-introduction. Performance occurs in North Carolina with a period of performance through November 16, 2026.

The 2026 north carolina department of agriculture hpai emergency cooperative agreement funding will contribute to payment for unexpected costs arising from the disease response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in north carolina that began in november, 2025. These costs included state responder overtime, personnel travel and lodging expenses, personal protection equipment (PPE) and other disposable disease response supplies, supplies and equipment to respond, as well as contractors to assist with the work. Activities to be performed: activities performed by north carolina 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 outbreak in north carolina minimizes further transmission of disease to other premises and minimizes the impact, to the extent possible, to agriculture trade within north carolina and with other states. This benefits the north carolina 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: n/a