Ohio Department Of Agriculture

Ohio Department Of Agriculture Anml Health, Food Safety, Feed & Fert, Mkts,Farmland, a state government entity headquartered in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, operates as a recipient of federal cooperative agreements and prime contractor delivering diagnostic testing, animal health surveillance, food safety inspection, and pest management services to USDA, FDA, EPA, and other federal agencies on a full-and-open basis without set-asides. The division operates accredited laboratory facilities in Reynoldsburg and Ames, Iowa, and functions as the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) within Ohio's broader agricultural regulatory portfolio.

The division's federal footprint clusters around three core capability areas. First, animal disease diagnostics and surveillance: ODA serves as a Level 1 member of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN), conducting highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) testing, foreign animal disease surveillance, antimicrobial resistance screening, and whole genome sequencing under a $20 million Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC 12639521D0088) with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services. Representative delivery orders include a $50,000 contract for HPAI National Animal Health Laboratory Network diagnostic testing (September 2026), a $100,000 order for HPAI cattle emerging event testing (April 2026), and a $3.175 million cooperative agreement to expand food safety testing capability and participate in FDA food defense activities through June 2030. Second, food safety inspection: FDA awarded ODA a $700,935.58 contract for human food inspections in Ohio (September 2026) and a $644,744.04 contract for animal food inspections (September 2026), both running through 2027 and 2032 respectively, and ODA receives $11.764 million annually in cooperative agreement funding from USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service to operate Ohio's state meat and poultry inspection program. Third, plant pest surveillance and eradication: ODA receives recurring cooperative agreements from USDA APHIS for detection, delimitation, and suppression of invasive species including Asian Longhorned Beetle ($4.5 million, September 2025), spotted lanternfly (multiple awards totaling up to $300,000 annually), and Box Tree Moth ($300,000, July 2025), along with specialized surveys for exotic plant pathogens affecting vineyards, orchards, grapes, and forestry commodities.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward USDA. The top five funding agencies account for 69 percent of recent awards: Department of Agriculture APHIS (272 awards, $640,000 combined potential value across many small task orders), USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (56 awards), USDA APHIS Veterinary Services (40 awards, $21.2 million combined potential value), FDA (40 awards, $18 million combined potential value), and USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (21 awards). By dollar value, APHIS Veterinary Services anchors the portfolio at $21.2 million, followed closely by APHIS Marketing and Regulatory Programs at $20.7 million and FDA at $18 million. APHIS dominance reflects ODA's role as a foundational lab in the national animal disease surveillance network; the split between Veterinary Services (diagnostic testing) and Marketing/Regulatory Programs (commodity-specific avian influenza and cattle testing) shows concentration across multiple USDA sub-offices rather than dependence on a single customer.

ODA places the majority of its work under indefinite delivery contracts and blanket purchase agreements rather than single-award vehicles. The primary parent vehicle is IDC 12639521D0088 with USDA APHIS, which carried 23 task orders valued at approximately $1.1 million combined potential value. Older APHIS testing agreements (2016–2021) generated 16 task orders at $86,000 combined value. EPA's Blanket Purchase Agreements AG6395B090028 and AG6395B130091 supported 13 and 9 task orders respectively, primarily for pesticide regulatory and enforcement programs in cooperation with EPA Region 5.

Federal grant activity is substantial and growing. ODA serves as prime recipient for cooperative agreements across plant health, animal health, food safety, and conservation programs. USDA APHIS granted ODA $300,000 for spotted lanternfly suppression (August 1, 2026) and $4.5 million for Asian Longhorned Beetle eradication (September 2025). FDA awarded $1.5 million for animal food regulatory program standards development (September 2025) and $3.175 million to expand food safety testing capability (September 2025). EPA Region 5 funded $1.023 million for pesticide regulatory and enforcement programs (October 2025) and $1 million for Great Lakes drainage water recycling projects (October 2024). USDA Agricultural Marketing Service provided $710,110.81 through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program for marketing and promotion (September 2025) and $633,380 for the Pesticide Data Program (January 2026). ODA also receives multi-year infrastructure support grants from USDA APHIS for National Animal Health Laboratory Network operations, quality assurance systems, and laboratory information management, typically running $200,000–$300,000 annually. Cooperative agreements with USDA Veterinary Services and APHIS for animal disease traceability, animal health surveillance, and foreign animal disease monitoring generate $150,000–$300,000 per fiscal year. ODA acts as sub-recipient in a small number of awards; recent sub-awards include participation in the Gypsy Moth Slow The Spread Foundation's trap-and-treat program (May 2024) and the Michigan Department of Agriculture's National Incident Command System capacity project (March 2024).

Activity remains stable at 31–40 awards annually over the past five years, with 2026 tracking at 19 awards year-to-date (October 15). Twenty-eight awards with completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $5.3 million, representing routine recompete exposure across animal health laboratory infrastructure, food inspection programs, and pest management contracts. ODA competes in a full-and-open posture without SBA set-asides, positioning it as a state entity performing inherent government functions in animal health, food safety, and environmental protection rather than as a commercial contractor.