The Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (LADDL) is an accredited laboratory with the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnostician. In addition to being an accredited animal disease diagnostic laboratory for the veterinary community, LADDL works through cooperative agreements with the state , the USDA and its interagencies to perform diagnostic surveillance for endemic, targeted, and foreign animal disease to enhance the biosecurity of the food and agricultural industries of the United States The Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (LADDL), is willing and capable to work through cooperative agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN) Cooperative Agreement Program to build a strong animal diagnostic network to provide sample analyses in the event of animal food or drug related illnesses or other large-scale animal/feed emergency events that requires surge capacity testing of diagnostic or animal food samples.
Projective Narrative/Specific Aims: The specific aim of this research is to increase the laboratory capacity for storage when conducting pathogen susceptibility testing, whole genome sequencing and diagnostic testing for the Vet-LIRN case investigations. The increased capability and capacity of sample analysis are supportive of the goals of the Vet-LIRN network. The applicant laboratory, the Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (LADDL), is a full member of the Vet-LIRN network with infrastructure grants and expects to participate in FDA/Vet-LIRN sample analysis of surveillance samples associated with events related to animal food/drug emergency events as well as other additional projects. This capacity building funding will allow the purchase of specialized equipment to increase the participation in Vet-LIRN?s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Project, investigation of adverse events as related to animal food or animal drugs and participation in the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) Project. This support will enable the applicant laboratory, LADDL to 1). to increase storage space for samples, that are part of a Vet-LIRN laboratory investigation and 2).to participate in the generation of data for building reference databases to aid investigators in identifying cases involved in an outbreak and tracking potential sources of contamination. This funding will allow the laboratory to be proactive when preparing for potential emergency response and reactive when responding during a contamination event.
