Alabama Department Of Agriculture & Industries

Alabama Department Of Agriculture & Industries, a state government entity operating as a child organization within Alabama Department of Public Health, provides animal health laboratory diagnostics and regulatory inspection services to federal agencies as a grant recipient and federal contract prime, with a heavily concentrated federal footprint anchored in USDA animal health and food safety programs.

ADAI operates across two distinct federal channels. As a contract prime, the agency holds a $40 million single-award Indefinite Delivery Contract with USDA Veterinary Services (IDC 12639522D0004) running through November 2026, which funds delivery orders for animal health laboratory testing services including highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) diagnostics, foreign animal disease testing, antimicrobial resistance susceptibility testing, and scrapie detection. Recent contract delivery orders exemplify this work: a $3,000 firm fixed-price order from USDA Veterinary Services for FAD testing under the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) awarded April 23, 2026, a $19,950 order from USDA APHIS for scrapie testing issued January 30, 2026, and a $50,000 order from USDA Veterinary Services for HPAI testing awarded December 19, 2024. The agency also holds a $66,340 definitive contract with the Food and Drug Administration for animal food services (awarded August 29, 2025) and multiple smaller FDA contracts for animal food inspections. Contract work is not set-aside and carries no small business designation, reflecting ADAI's classification as a state government agency.

As a federal grant recipient, ADAI receives cooperative agreements and project grants almost exclusively from the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and subsidiary divisions (Veterinary Services, Agricultural Marketing Service, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Food and Nutrition Service). The grant portfolio spans animal disease surveillance, plant pest detection, food safety inspection, and agricultural support programming. Representative recent grants include a $734,031 cooperative agreement from APHIS for avian and cattle health surveillance through March 31, 2027; a $158,517 award for the Citrus Health Response Program through April 30, 2027; a $3.038 million cooperative agreement from USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service for meat and poultry inspection through September 30, 2026; a $388,570 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant from USDA Food and Nutrition Service through June 30, 2028; and a $245,071 EPA Region 4 Performance Partnership Grant for pesticide inspections and enforcement through September 30, 2028. ADAI also administers formula grants and project grants for the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program and Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, leveraging sub-awards to non-profit organizations and cooperatives for distribution and implementation.

Customer concentration is extreme and agency-specific. USDA APHIS Veterinary Services dominates the potential-value ranking with 19 awards valued at $40.2 million combined—nearly 98 percent of all identified potential value. The broader APHIS family (all component divisions) accounts for 231 awards but with only $32 thousand in additional combined potential value, reflecting the dominance of the single large IDC with Veterinary Services. FDA ranks second by potential value with 19 awards totaling $654 thousand. No other federal agency appears in the top five by dollars. Award volume by count shows APHIS at 231 awards, followed by Agricultural Marketing Service at 38 awards, Food and Nutrition Service at 33-21 awards (source shows two separate line items), and Food Safety and Inspection Service at 29 awards. This concentration—78 percent of awards across just five customer entities, all within USDA or FDA—leaves ADAI with minimal diversification risk but substantial recompete exposure.

Activity has remained relatively flat over the past five years (2022: 29 awards, 2023: 29, 2024: 34, 2025: 28, 2026: 13 to date). The agency faces a significant recompete cliff, with 29 awards (combined potential value $97 thousand) reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months. However, the recompete risk is concentrated in smaller cooperative agreements and project grants; the $40 million Veterinary Services IDC does not mature until November 2026 and extends into the twenty-five-month window.

ADAI operates as a state agricultural regulator with deep laboratory and diagnostic infrastructure. The agency's capability portfolio centers on animal health diagnostics (avian influenza, foreign animal diseases, antimicrobial resistance, brucellosis, BSE, tuberculosis surveillance), plant pest and disease detection surveys (citrus health, phytophthora ramorum, imported fire ants, Asian defoliators, spotted lanternfly, cogongrass), and food safety inspection (meat and poultry inspection, animal feed regulatory compliance, seafood processors). Regulatory work includes pesticide certification and enforcement, poultry and egg grading standards, and animal disease traceability. The agency administers agricultural assistance programs including farmers' market nutrition for seniors, specialty crop competitiveness grants, and local food purchase programs.

ADAI carries no subcontract footprint in the source data (1 sub-award of 450 total, sub-recipients not named). The agency acts as a federal grant recipient and sub-recipient within USDA cooperative agreements—the source names the Federally-Recognized Poarch Band of Creek Indians Tribe, Deep South Food Alliance, Feeding Alabama, and Tuskegee University as sub-awardees on an Agricultural Marketing Service local food purchase assistance program, but ADAI itself functions as the managing recipient, not the contracting prime.

The portfolio reflects ADAI's statutory role as Alabama's state agricultural agency partnering with federal regulatory and food safety missions. Awards are concentrated in cooperative agreements and project grants under farm bill authorities (CFDA 10.025, 10.170, 10.170, 10.475, 10.477, 10.576) and are not competitive. Federal support enables state-level disease surveillance, regulatory compliance, and producer assistance work that would otherwise lack state appropriations. Recompete risk is manageable but focused on renewal of the large Veterinary Services IDC in late 2026.