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USDA Announces $3 Million in Funding Opportunities for Antimicrobial Resistance Dashboard Development

The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is making up to $3 million in cooperative agreement funding available to create antimicrobial resistance dashboards. Addressing AMR is important to APHIS, along with the agricultural and public health sectors, because antimicrobials are some of our most critical tools for treating serious infections and saving the lives of people and animals.

These dashboard tools, developed through public-private partnerships, will be used to improve access to information on antimicrobial resistance in domesticated animals. "Public-private partnerships are an essential part of achieving our goals at APHIS," said Administrator Kevin Shea. "The dashboard tools developed through these cooperative agreements will help us better understand antimicrobial resistance in livestock, poultry, and companion animals, which ultimately helps protect public health."

Once created, the antimicrobial resistance dashboards will be used to monitor trends in antimicrobial resistance patterns, detect emerging resistance profiles, and better understand relationships between antimicrobial use and animal health management practices and antimicrobial resistance. The projects will support APHIS' goals of:

  • Developing antimicrobial resistance dashboard tools that can securely track the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistant microbes in domesticated animals.
  • Identifying and/or developing methods for protecting data confidentiality of these dashboards.
  • Identifying data user needs and preferences for antimicrobial resistance dashboard tools.
  • Exploring aspects of data management for antimicrobial resistance dashboard tools.

Eligible applicants include state departments of agriculture; Tribal entities; offices of state animal health officials; nonprofits; institutions of higher education; state or national livestock, poultry, or aquaculture producer organizations with direct and significant economic interest in livestock, poultry, or aquaculture production; state, national, allied, or regional veterinary organizations or specialty boards recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

All antimicrobial resistance dashboard tools developed will be required to provide data protections similar to the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act.

The funding announcement will be open November 21, 2022, to February 20, 2023, for a total of 90 days. APHIS will post opportunities to Grants.gov and the agency will accept applications using the ezFedGrants system.

This dashboard development effort will complement APHIS' ongoing work on antimicrobial resistance. With our extensive animal health expertise and strong Federal, State, and industry partnerships, APHIS plays a critical role in identifying antimicrobial resistance in diseases found in livestock and poultry, as well as domestic cats and dogs. APHIS' National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) collects and evaluates information voluntarily provided by U.S. farmers and ranchers to better understand antimicrobial use in the context of overall animal health. And our partner labs in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) look for antimicrobial resistance, supporting APHIS' work to monitor for trends and identify new or emerging resistance profiles, assess the continued usefulness of antibiotics over time, and provide actionable guidance to veterinarians, producers, and other stakeholders.

[Source: USDA]