New Hampshire Fda Fern Cooperative Agreement Program

Food & Drug AdministrationFERN Cooperative Agreement Continuation Program (U18) State of New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories Project Summary/Abstract 2015-2020The New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories (NHPHL) will provide the Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) Food Emergency Response Laboratory Network (FERN) responsive,unbiased, quality laboratory testing in the event of food outbreaks or other large scale foodemergency events requiring surge capacity testing of implicated food samples. The NHPHL willparticipate as requested in national and international food surveillance exercises andassignments, in small-scale, short-term method development and method validation projects asdirected by FERN National Program Office (NPO). The NHPHL objectives for the FDA FERNCooperative agreement 5-year grant period is to continue to coordinate and integrate the NHfood testing and surveillance program into the FERN integrated food safety system in thefollowing two tracks:MICROBIOLOGY - Track 1The NHPHL was awarded a cooperative agreement in 2005 with FSIS, and has participated inthe FDA and USDA FERN cooperative agreements each subsequent year, to enhance labtesting capability of microbiological threat agents. The NHPHL has five full time staff in the foodSafety unit, four full time staff in the molecular diagnostic unit, two full time staff in the clinicalmicrobiology unit and two full time staff in the emergency response unit all available toparticipate in FERN activities as needed in emergencies. The NHPHL has the necessaryprocedures and methods, equipment, laboratory space and infrastructure to participate in FERNactivities. The NHPHL will continue to analyze food samples and submit the data to eLEXNETand/or the FERN portal as appropriate. The NHPHL is actively working towards ISO/IEC 17025accreditation and intends to apply for accreditation in the near future.CHEMISTRY - Track 2NHPHL Chemistry unit is an active member of the Chemistry Cooperative Agreement Program(cCAP) with the FERN since 2005, and with FDA support, enhanced the capability and capacityto test contaminated products. The lab will continue to support and participate in all FERNrelated chemical food testing for targeted and non-targeted surveillance of regulated products.The objective for the 5 year FDA FERN Cooperative agreement is to continue such efforts toimprove chemical food testing. The NHPHL has validated the necessary procedures andmethods, and has the equipment, laboratory space and infrastructure to participate in FERNactivities. NHPHL is requesting funding for three chemistry full time staff, chemical supplies andreagents, travel to training / conferences and service contracts to maintain FDA loanedequipment, which will all aid towards strengthening FERN by food testing for food safety andfood defense.