USDA announces $6 million in funding for antimicrobial resistance research initiatives

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), through its Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), recently announced the availability of $6 million in funding for research in combating antimicrobial resistance.

The funds were authorized as part of the the 2014 Farm Bill and will be administered by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture in support of the Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria National Action Plan.

The USDA stipulated that any funding award must address a specific set of objectives including: developing approaches to investigate the ecology of microbial resistant microbes and gene reservoirs in multiple farm products; developing effective sustainable resource strategies to include alternative practices to mitigate antimicrobial emergence or spread; and identifying critical control points for mitigating antimicrobial resistance in both pre- and post-food production environments.

Funding can also be awarded for the design of innovative training, education and outreach resources that can be adapted throughout the food chain and designing studies that evaluate the efficacy of proposed research, education, and interventions of antimicrobial resistance.

The USDA has awarded more than $82 million in food safety research and extension grants since 2009, including $3.4 million in FY2015 specifically to address antimicrobial resistance.

Previously funded projects include a State University of New York initiative to evaluate critical control points in dairy farm operations and a Texas A&M University project that developed science-based decision aids for antibiotic stewardship.