Location: Zoonotic and Emerging Disease Research
Project Number: 3022-32000-027-020-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jul 15, 2024
End Date: Jul 14, 2025
Objective:
The primary objective of this work will be to establish maximum-containment diagnostic and emergency response capabilities in support of the standup APHIS FADDL BSL4 diagnostic mission priorities at the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF). This objective will be accomplished through partnering with ARS Zoonotic and Emerging Disease Research Unit (ZEDRU) and will directly benefit from their established collaborations. While NBAF facilities are not open, FADDL and ZEDRU will partner with other researchers to conduct field surveillance and experimental studies to determine threat risks, as well as develop and validate novel diagnostics, including field deployable technology. Work will be focused on pathogens that fall under the APHIS BSL4 mission space, supporting both ARS and APHIS programs. Studies will be prioritized to address diagnostic assay and reagent gaps, or to answer questions of significant concern for the NBAF and USDA missions.
This project is designed to support the standup of the USDA-APHIS-FADDL BSL4 diagnostic mission at the NBAF in Manhattan, Kansas. The program will build on existing activities and expertise developed by ZEDRU in collaboration with their partners.
Approach:
1. Develop and evaluate the use of diagnostics for the detection of risk group 4 pathogens in livestock, including novel technologies (such as CRISPR-based assays) and field deployable devices and techniques.
2. Utilize establish collaborations to conduct sample collection and surveillance to delineate temporal and spatial infection rates for risk group 4 pathogens of interest in livestock, domestic animals, and wildlife. Not only will this approach provide data to support assessments of spillover risk from reservoirs to livestock and domestic animals, data from sequencing will also be utilized to expand the APHIS genomics database.
3. Once appropriate to the phase of NBAF standup, samples from field surveillance approach may also be used to isolate, characterize, and develop virus strains for the future FADDL risk group 4 biorepository.
