The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced $6 million in research funds is available to address antimicrobial resistance.
The funds are made available through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative section of the 2014 Farm Bill and administered by the agency’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
This research funding is one of multiple efforts the agency has in place to support the Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria National Action Plan and the efforts of the Task Force for Combating Antibiotic Resistance, which USDA co-chairs.
Through this program, USDA promotes food safety practices that can increase public health throughout the food chain.
According to USDA, one of the following must be addressed in order to receive funds:
• Researchers must develop novel systems approaches to investigate the ecology of microbial resistance microbes and gene reservoirs in the environment in animals, crops, food products or in farm-raised aquaculture products.
• Researchers must develop, evaluate and implement effective and sustainable resources and strategies to include alternative practices, techniques, technologies or tools that mitigate emergence, spread or persistence of antimicrobial resistant pathogens within the agricultural ecosystem, in animals, in crops and in food.
• Scientists must study and identify critical control points for mitigating antimicrobial resistance in the pre- and post-harvest food production environment.
• Researchers must design innovative training, education and outreach resources (including web-based resources) that can be adapted by users across the food chain, including policy makers, farmers and ranchers, processors, retailers and consumers.
• Researchers must design and conduct studies that evaluate the impact and efficacy of proposed research, education and extension/outreach interventions on antimicrobial resistance across the food chain from primary producers to primary consumers.
More information about the funds is available here.