Ruminant Feed Ban Support Project

To assist in an increased surveillance presence throughout the commercial feed channels to prevent the introduction or amplification of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States.

This cooperative agreement grant program is only available to State and Tribal Feed/BSE regulatory programs.

The general public, State and Tribal Feed/BSE regulatory programs.

Applications must present a project plan and furnish evidence that facilities, personnel and equipment are appropriate to carry out the project specific objectives as stated in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) as published in the Federal Register or NIH Guide. These awards are subject to Executive Order 12372, as it applies.

Funds are used for location and visitation of firms involved in the manufacture, distribution and transportation of animal feed, and operations feeding ruminant animals in their jurisdiction, to verify compliance with the ruminant feed ban. Visitations could include annual inspections of renderers, protein blenders and feed mills that manufacture animal feeds and feed ingredients utilizing materials prohibited under the ruminant feed ban that are not covered under existing FDA contracts and other agreements. Funds can be used for inspections of salvagers of food and feed, and transporters of animal feed and feed ingredients, supplies, training, laboratory equipment for feed sample testing, and as a supplement to the annual State program appropriations. Funds may not be used to replace annual State program funds for these purposes.

The length of support will depend on the nature of the projects, program relevance and the availability of funds. For those projects with an expected duration of more than 1 year, future recommended support for up to 5 years will depend on (1) performance during the preceding year and (2) availability of Federal funds.

The application forms referenced in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) as required by 45 CFR 72 must be used for this program. The FOA may be published in the NIH Guide or Federal Register. All applications submitted for new, competing continuations or competing supplemental grants must complete the required applications forms through Grants.gov at http://www.grants.gov.

All applications will be reviewed for responsiveness by the Grants Management Staff and the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA). To be responsive, the application must be submitted in accordance with the requirements of the FOA as published in the NIH Guide or the Federal Register. All responsive applications will be reviewed by an Objective Review committee. Each application will be scored and ranked based on the following criteria 1) availability of adequately trained staff; 2) detailed description of current feed regulatory program; 3) properly detailed budget that is intended to supplement State or Tribal appropriations; 4) accurate count of all feed facilities, etc., in the State or Tribal nation; 5) detailed description of how inspections are to be performed; 6) detailed descriptions of how current, non-inspected facilities will be identified and added to the State's inspection responsibilities: 7) ability to satisfy the reporting requirements; 8) provision of current funding level certification; 9) detailed methodology for program improvement; 10) justification for hiring new staff; and 11) detailed description of the enforcement of violative facilities; under the cooperative agreement all funding will be made by the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration or his designee.

All accepted applications receive a programmatic and objective review for technical merit and responsiveness to the Funding Opportunity funding criteria. All approved, recommended and scored applications compete for available funds on the basis of score, scientific/technical merit as well as programmatic relevance. Geographic distribution will be a consideration in the award selection process.

Renewals are available if allowed in the most recently published Funding Opportunity Announcement.