The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is awarding more than $22.2 million to enhance prevention, preparedness, early detection, and rapid response to the most damaging diseases that threaten U.S. livestock.

These 81 new projects led by 48 states, universities, industry organizations, and veterinary diagnostic laboratories will increase our nation’s ability to rapidly respond to and control animal disease outbreaks. USDA is awarding this funding through the 2018 Farm Bill’s National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP) and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN). APHIS is also announcing an investment of an additional $900,000 in Farm Bill funds to replenish the national stockpile of classical swine fever vaccine.

National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program

APHIS is awarding $16.2 million to support new projects through NADPRP. The 74 projects will help states develop and practice plans to quickly control disease outbreaks, train responders and producers to perform critical animal disease outbreak response activities, increase producer use of effective and practical biosecurity measures, educate livestock owners on preventing disease and what happens in an outbreak, and support animal movement decisions in animal disease outbreaks, among others.

NADPRP Projects specific to aquaculture are:

• Auburn University: AquaDx - A Simple and Easy-To-Use Molecular Diagnostic Assay for Rapid Detection of Aquatic Foreign Animal Diseases - $293,873
• University of Arizona: Developing A Highly Specific and Robust TaqMan Real-Time PCR Assay for A Simultaneous Detection of Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) and Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND) in Shrimp - $389,782
• Hawaii Department of Agriculture: Enhancing Veterinary Capacity for Aquatic Animal Disease Preparedness and Response in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands Region - $167,717
• Iowa State University: Tools and Resources to Help U.S. Aquaculture Farms with Disease Risk Assessment and Biosecurity Plan Development - $267,928
• Michigan State University: Strengthening the Fish Farm Veterinary Workforce, Fish Farm Biosecurity, and Enhancing Aquatic Animal Disease Preparedness and Response in the North Central Region - $137,196

In July APHIS will announce an interactive dashboard where anyone can sort and filter types of projects, location of projects funded, and sector of projects and get the summary sheet publicly available for all projects.