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This Cooperative Agreement is for continued participation of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network as a core laboratory. The overall goal of the program is to enhance the capability and capacity of our nation's animal health laboratories to respond to an accidentally or intentionally introduced foreign animal disease agent. <P>
The objectives are to develop and maintain in the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory all elements that comprise an effective laboratory surveillance and emergency response. These include trained and proficiency tested personnel; rapid, sensitive and specific assays; high throughput equipment; an appropriate laboratory environment, including biosafety level 3 containment; a communication and alert system for rapid, seamless and accurate transmission of data; and a quality assurance system meeting international standards. <P>
The outputs from this project include maintenance and continued development of the laboratory infrastructure needed to achieve all elements of an effective laboraory surveillance and response network, and will be assessed through modeling of outbreaks and scenario testing.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Early detection of and a rapid, coordinated response to a FAD agent, whether accidentally or deliberately introduced, are dependent upon a reliable, secure network of laboratories strategically located throughout the United States. In recognition of this, the United States Department of Agriculture implemented the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) in 2002 consisting of twelve state animal disease diagnostic laboratories, including the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL). This cooperative agreement is for continued participation of WADDL in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) as a core laboratory. The project addresses the goals of USDA and the NAHLN to enhance the capability and capacity of State and University animal disease diagnostic laboratories for surveillance, early detection of, rapid response to, and appropriate recovery from an animal agriculture catastrophe. The most specific output addressed by this project is Output 4: Diagnostic Systems. However, other specific outputs addressed directly and indirectly by the proposal include Output 1: Developing high-quality outreach resources that (help) prevent the impact of bio-security emergencies/disasters; Output 2: Educated/capable corps of first detectors and Output 3: Data systems and networking (biomedical informatics, data management systems, network integration, IT, etc.).
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APPROACH: This cooperative agreement is for continued participation of WADDL in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) as a core laboratory. Components of the WADDL core plan of work for the FY08 phase of the NAHLN (in priority order) are to (1) maintain the current laboratory infrastructure (space and equipment) developed during the early implementation phase; (2) maintain qualified personnel approved and proficiency tested on all tests and platforms required by the NAHLN; (3) participate in USDA/APHIS contracted surveillance programs for AI, END, CSF, BSE, CWD, Scrapie, and any new programs implemented by APHIS in the next year; (4) complete renovation of WADDL BSL3 space to enhance efficiency and accommodate new Biosafety cabinets and high throughput extraction equipment; (5) assist in completing and implementing the NAHLN IT system; (6) ensure capability for electronic messaging of all required data once the NAHLN IT system is operative; (7) continue to present outreach opportunities; (8) assist with validation of rapid molecular assays for high priority agents as identified by USDA, the NAHLN Steering Committee, and the Methods Technical Working Group; (9) continue to assist (PI McElwain) with implementation of the NAHLN Phase I Review recommendations; (10) serve as an integral resource for and participate in scenario tests, tabletops, and other exercises on a state, regional and national level; and (11) develop formal agreements with regional NAHLN laboratories for assistance during emergency operations.