FDA FERN Microbiological Cooperative Agreement Program PAR-09-215PROJECT SUMMARYThe Pennsylvania Department of Health Bureau of Laboratories (BOL) will establish acooperative agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the FDA FERNMicrobiological Cooperative Agreement Program (Program Announcement: PAR-09-215). TheBOL will conduct analyses of food and food-related samples to provide expanded laboratorycapacity to the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN). FERN will provide samples,instrumentation, test procedures, training and proficiency testing. The BOL will maintaincapacity to test a minimum of 100 samples per week and a minimum of 500 samples per year.Testing will be performed for the purposes of surveillance, food emergency outbreak response,and large-scale food emergency even surge capacity.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health Bureau of Laboratories (BOL) will establish a cooperative agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the FDA FERN Microbiological Cooperative Agreement Program (Program Announcement: PAR-09-215). The BOL will conduct analyses of food and food-related samples to provide expanded laboratory capacity to the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN). Testing will be performed for the purposes of surveillance, food emergency outbreak response, and large-scale food emergency even surge capacity.