Expanded national laboratory capacity to respond to animal food/drug related illnesses or other large-scale animal food/feed emergency events requiring surge capacity testing of implicated diagnostic or animal food samples is required to ensure food safety in humans. Food safety directly affects the food chain through biological and chemical contaminants in animal feeds The Breathitt Veterinary Center is a fully accredited (AAVLD) animal disease diagnostic laboratory strategically located in Western Kentucky. The objective of this grant application is to support activity by the Breathitt Veterinary Center in the FDA CVM Vet-LRN Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Program. The FDA Vet-LRN grant program is a mutually beneficial opportunity in which the laboratory receives support to advance its scientific scope and the FDA CVM adds to the national laboratory capacity. Funding provided through a cooperative agreement will be used to provide equipment, supplies, training, and proficiency testing requested by the FDA Vet- LRN on an annualized basis for a five-year period.
The Specific Aims of this proposal are: 1) To strengthen coordination of veterinary diagnostic laboratory efforts as related to the safety of the food supply; 2) To train, equip and proficiency test technicians to perform such testing as is necessary to ensure the safety of the food supply; 3) To participate in the Vet LIRN Whole Genome Sequencing Project by providing bacterial samples as a Source Laboratory.
Agriculture is Kentucky?s number one industry, contributing almost $6 billion to the state?s economy annually. Livestock and livestock product sales generate 65% of the total agricultural revenues. The Murray State University Breathitt Veterinary Center (BVC) is an animal disease diagnostic laboratory dedicated to protecting the valuable assets of the region by providing the fastest, most accurate, and most dependable animal disease diagnostic services possible. Located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the BVC, with a staff of 40 is housed in a new 77,000 square foot facility, 53,000 square feet of which are dedicated to veterinary diagnostics. The facility is centrally located to serve a 200 mile radius including Western Kentucky, Southern Indiana and Illinois, and Northwestern Tennessee. The BVC professional staff includes nine members with Doctorates in Veterinary Medicine and/or Masters and PhD degrees in the fields of Pathology, Microbiology, Virology, Immunology, and Toxicology and Public Health. The professional staff is supported by laboratory bench personnel each of who hold a minimum of a Bachelor?s degree and several have Masters degrees. The laboratory provides full administrative, secretarial/clerical, and maintenance staff in support of diagnostic and research activities. The BVC is accredited for all species by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) through December 2019. The BVC is a member of the USDA National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN), the Centers for Disease Control Laboratory Response Network (LRN), and the FDA Vet?Laboratory Response Network (Vet?LRN). The center?s scope of activity includes the scientific disciplines of Pathology, Microbiology, Molecular Diagnostics, Clinical Pathology, Toxicology, Serology, and Virology. The BVC processes 24,000+ diagnostic cases per year to include over 200,000 tests. The FDA CVM Vet?LRN desires to expand the national laboratory capacity to provide increased sample analyses in the event of animal food or drug related illnesses or other large?scale animal food/feed emergency events requiring surge capacity testing of implicated diagnostic or animal food samples. Objective: The objective of this grant application is to provide a cooperative agreement between the FDA CVM Vet?LRN and the BVC whereby the BVC will participate in the Vet?LRN Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Program. The FDA CVM Vet?LRN grant program is a mutually beneficial opportunity in which the FDA CVM Vet?LRN adds to the national laboratory capacity and the BVC receives support to advance its scope of activity. Funding provided through the cooperative agreement will be used to provide equipment, supplies, training, and proficiency testing under the aegis of the Vet?LRN Veterinary Diagnostic Program on an annualized basis for a five year period.
