ADDL awarded Farm Bill Grant to enhance Emergency Preparedness
Dominika Jurkovic, PhD, ADDL Bacteriology Section
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill, allocated $5.1 million to help fund members of the USDA National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN). Funding priorities include testing method development and validation of high-consequence animal disease, enhancing emergency preparedness, improved electronic data management, and development of laboratory centered exercises. ADDL’s proposal, “Enhancing BSL-3 capabilities of Ohio Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory,” was awarded $234,065 in this round of funding. The funds awarded will be used to expand sample storage capacity, upgrade equipment, and providing training opportunities for additional BSL-3 testing analysts. Expanding storage capacity and equipment upgrades will allow ADDL to meet the testing demands during a foreign animal disease (FAD) outbreak. Training opportunities for ADDL testing staff will increase the number of BSL-3 testing analysts available to for FAD outbreak testing.
USDA NIFA Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Accepting Applications
The Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) will pay up to $25,000 each year towards qualified educational loans of eligible veterinarians who agree to serve in a NIFA-designated veterinarian shortage situation for a period of three years.
Melanie Prarat, MS, ADDL Central Receiving Section
USDA NIFA releases Veterinarian Shortage Situations every fiscal year. A Veterinarian Shortage Situations map displays designated shortage situations across the United States. In fiscal year 2021, USDA NIFA has identified five Type II Veterinarian Shortage Situations in Ohio. Type II shortages are defined as a remote or economically depressed rural area that needs food animal veterinary services but is unable to support a practitioner that predominantly serves the food animal sector, despite great need. In these situations, a minimum of 30% commitment (12 hours per week) of a veterinarian’s time is dedicated to food animal medicine. The five Veterinarian Shortage Situations in Ohio are summarized here.
USDA’s Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP), authorized by the National Veterinary Medical Services Act (NVMSA), helps qualified veterinarians offset a significant portion of the debt incurred in pursuit of their veterinary medicine degrees in return for their service in certain high-priority veterinary shortage situations. The application period opened February 10, 2021 and closes April 16, 2021. VMLRP awards will be offered on September 30, 2021. Veterinarians interested in applying for a VMLRP award are encouraged to thoroughly review the application process on the VMLRP website.
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