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

The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service awarded the Livestock & Poultry Commission Arkansas $123,349 through a Cooperative Agreement under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025) on December 5, 2025, to support emergency response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in Arkansas that began in December 2025.

The funding covers unexpected costs of the disease response including state responder overtime, personnel travel and lodging, personal protection equipment and disposable supplies, equipment, and contractor support. Activities performed by Arkansas responders include issuance and notification of state quarantines, disease surveillance in control areas and surveillance zones, biosecurity monitoring on infected premises, oversight of euthanasia and carcass disposal, monitoring of cleaning and disinfection of infected premises, permit approval for movement of feed and supplies, stakeholder outreach, response to sick bird calls, environmental sampling, real-time reporting of disease response status, and data entry and incident document management. The cooperator's activities are intended to facilitate timely return to normal poultry production and trade within the state and with other states, encourage robust biosecurity to minimize further transmission, enable infected premises to return to production at the earliest opportunity, maintain stakeholder and consumer outreach, and sustain HPAI surveillance and investigation to enable earliest detection should the disease re-emerge or be reintroduced.

Performance occurs in Arkansas with an obligated amount of $123,349 and a period of performance from December 5, 2025, through December 4, 2026.

The 2026 arkansas 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 arkansas that began in december, 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 arkansas 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 susp icious 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 arkansas minimizes further transmission of disease to other premises and minimizes the impact, to the extent possible, to agriculture trade within arkansas and with other states. This benefits the arkansas 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