Support aphis program disease activities for the following program commodity groups: avian health, cattle health, small ruminant health, and swine health

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the Department of Agriculture awarded a $1.737 million Cooperative Agreement to the Texas Animal Health Commission on April 1, 2026, under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025).

The recipient will conduct disease surveillance, monitoring, and response activities across four livestock commodity groups to safeguard the health and marketability of Texas and U.S. livestock and poultry. For avian health, the Texas Animal Health Commission will conduct active surveillance for avian influenza at live bird markets, respond to sick bird calls and reports of domestic bird morbidity and mortality, provide producer outreach and education, and respond to foreign animal disease detections. For cattle health, the recipient will provide bovine brucellosis education and conduct epidemiological investigations; collect samples and conduct outreach for bovine spongiform encephalopathy; collaborate on cattle fever tick eradication and tick identification; and conduct bovine tuberculosis outreach, training, and herd testing as required. For small ruminant health, the recipient will investigate and test foreign animal disease and program disease suspects, conduct active scrapie surveillance in sheep and goats, assist with regulatory slaughter surveillance, monitor and respond to chronic wasting disease detections in non-native cervids, and maintain lists of accredited veterinarians trained in cervical and DPP testing. For swine health, activities will be conducted as detailed in the agreement.

Performance occurs in Texas from April 1, 2026, through March 31, 2027.

The activities outlined in the agreement are designed to safeguard the health and marketability of texas and, by extension, unites states livestock and poultry through disease surveillance, monitoring, and response. The recipient will conduct the following activities for each program: avian health: conduct active surveillance for avian influenza at live bird markets; conduct passive surveillance by responding to sick bird calls and reports of domestic bird morbidity/ mortality; conduct outreach and education with producers; respond to detections of avian foreign animal disease per aphis and state guidelines; cattle health: bovine brucellosis-provide education, encourage abortion screening in cattle, support brucellosis EPI investigations. BSE-collect samples, conduct outreach and education. Cattle fever tick - collaborate with cattle fever tick eradication program, agricultural research service, state and federal wildlife authorities; collect and submit ticks for identification. Bovine tuberculosis - conduct outreach and training, conduct EPI investigations and herd tests as required. Hpai - assist state public health with national milk testing program as needed. Small ruminant health: all species: investigate and test FAD and program dise ASE suspects and investigate potential emerging disease outbreaks; sheep and goats: conduct active surveillance for scrapie; assist with regulatory scrapie slaughter surveillance program; conduct outreach and education with producers; cervids: monitor and respond to detection of CWD in non-native cervids (sika, black-tailed and red deer, reindeer, ELK, moose); conduct CWD education and outreach with producers; conduct training and maintain lists of accredited veterinarians trained to perform single cervical and DPP testing; swine health: swine brucellosis and PRV - conduct and report surveillance testing; investigate and trace reactors; conduct disease response activities such as herd clean-up, trace back/forward investigations, testing, and disposal of high-risk animals/herds, as appropriate; garbage feeding-conduct searches for unlicensed waste feeders; collaborate with the USDA to ensure that all garbage feeding facilities are inspected monthly. Inspection reports will be submitted using VS form 13-2; ASF/CSF - collect and submit samples for surveillance; conduct education and outreach; surveillance data will be documented and reported using the designated VS databases and/or prescribed forms; for all commodity groups, the recipient will; cooperate with aphis-veterinary services in detecting and managing program diseases as evidenced by early detection, effective response, and timely reporting; strengthen communication between animal health authorities, veterinarians, industry, producers and other stakeholders as evidenced by improved stakeholder cooperation; maintain readiness for effective response to disease outbreaks in livestock species as evidenced by current response plans, meetings and exercises with stakeholders, and robust public communication capability; for avian health commodity programs, the recipient will: inspect a minimum of 40 live bird markets per quarter; test 6100 birds in the live bird marketing system for avian influenza; respond to at least 10 sick bird calls each quarter; respond to at least 4 avian-related foreign animal disease investigations per year; conduct at least 500 inspections per quarter at live bird markets, fairgrounds, and local poultry shows where testing is not administered; for cattle health commodity programs, the recipient will: annually review bovine tuberculosis caudal fold test response rates for tests performed by accredited veterinarians and report results to aphis; place known TB-exposed animals and herds adja cent to TB-affected herds under quarantine within 15 days of identification. Conduct outreach and training, conduct EPI investigations and herd tests as required; collaborate continuously with cattle fever tick eradication program, agricultural research service, s tate and federal wildlife authorities; collect and submit ticks for identification. Conduct targeted surveillance in areas where tick-infested livestock and ungulates have been discovered outside the permanent quarantine zone in texas; for the small ruminant health commodity programs, the recipient will: attend at least 1 conference of small ruminant producers annually; assist the aphis with the quarterly scrapie identification compliance report; coordinate with aphis to complete, review, and sign the annual scrapie state status application (VS form 5-24); cooperate with aphis to collect a 1000 sheep and 1000 goat samples annually for scrapie surveillance; monitor and respond to detection of CWD in non-native cervids (sika, black-tailed and red deer, reindeer, ELK, moose); conduct CWD education and outreach with producers; conduct training and maintain lists of accredited veterinarians trained to perform single cervical and DPP testing for cervids; for the swine health commodity program, the recipient will: inspect all swine garbage feeding sites once annually; search for unlicensed garbage feeding sites-conduct searches for unlicensed waste feeders; submit inspection reports using VS form 13-2; collect 3900 samples for ASF/CSF testing surveillance annually. By cooperating with aphis to maintain the health and marketability of US livestock, the beneficiaries of this agreement are the livestock producers of texas and, by extension, the agriculture industry of the united states. There will be no subrecipients for this agreement.