This $120,000 Project Grant awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) supports a study on Culicoides biting midges and their role in transmitting viral diseases like bluetongue virus and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus to wild and domestic ruminants in Arkansas. The 2-year study will involve blood meal analysis to determine host-associations of Culicoides species collected across the state, as well...
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture received a $120,000 project grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant, awarded on August 15, 2024, will support research examining the impact of sublethal insecticide exposure on the vector competence of Culicoides biting midges for Bluetongue virus transmission. The goal is to inform producers and applicators about the risks associated...
This $600,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) aims to address the critical shortage of veterinary entomologists and provide entomological training to support the livestock industry. The 4-year program will be led by the University of Tennessee and involve collaborative research teams at the University of Georgia, Kansas State University, and Texas...
This $180,000 Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program will fund research at Washington State University (WSU) to improve risk assessment for contact with the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum) in rural agricultural communities. The key objectives are to integrate the tick's behavioral ecology with field surveillance data to build and optimize a spatial risk model. This will enable...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded a $117,832 Formula Grant under the Animal Health and Disease Research (CFDA 10.207) program to the Division of Agriculture of the University of Arkansas. This grant supports the university's internal competitive grant program for animal health and disease research projects. The funded projects are considered seed grants that are relatively short-term with limited budgets. The research conducted aims to...
This federal Project Grant award of $600,000 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program aims to develop an interactive computer-based platform that can examine, analyze, and interpret factors influencing cattle fever ticks in the United States. The objective is to create a tool to identify evolving risks and implement effective prevention and mitigation strategies against cattle fever tick infestations, which pose a...
This $300,000 Project Grant, awarded by the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) program, will support the development of a sensitive, high-throughput multiplex diagnostic assay to simultaneously detect six major tick-borne pathogens, including Anaplasma, Borrelia, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, Babesia, and Theileria. This assay will leverage barcoded magnetic bead technology to rapidly identify the causative agents of...
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville was awarded a $650,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program. The grant period is from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2027. Under the award, the University of Arkansas will develop and implement a consistent, national-scale early detection and rapid response tool to prevent the spread and establishment of invasive...
The Division of Agriculture of the University of Arkansas (UADA) was awarded a $749,638 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The goal of the 5-year project is to introduce career opportunities for STEM and liberal arts students in Arkansas in the areas of agriculture and natural resources, food safety and nutrition, and rural community development. The...
This Project Grant award of $800,000.00 from the USDA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) to Texas A&M AgriLife Research aims to advance tools for quantifying soft tick contact with domestic and wild swine in regions with active African swine fever virus (ASFV) transmission in Uganda as well as in the U.S. The two specific objectives are to determine the vertebrate host community utilized by ASFV-competent argasid ticks and quantify serological evidence of swine exposure...