In 2022, CVM funded a $500,000 grant for the collection of information about animal diseases that are the most significant for antimicrobial use in various animal production settings for the four major food-producing species (i.e., cattle, swine, turkeys, and chickens), and to provide information about alternative practices that may help reduce the reliance on such drugs while addressing animal health needs. Such alternatives can include changes in husbandry, biosecurity, vaccination, and other management practices.

This grant will provide information to support the continued advancement of initiatives related to supporting antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary settings and will support the National Action Plan objectives to engage the animal health community and relevant stakeholders.

This project may be funded through 2025.

Awardee: Iowa State University (Grant number 1U01FD007683-01)

• Project Title: Integration of a multi-pronged standardized methodology to identify key diseases and prioritized antimicrobial alternatives in production animals
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter
• Publications: no publications available currently

In 2022, CVM awarded a $300,000 grant to fund education and outreach efforts to support antimicrobial stewardship practices in food-producing animals. This project may be funded through 2024.

Awardee: Michigan State University (Grant 1U01FD007790-01)

• Project Title: Combining benchmarking and competency-based training to implement antimicrobial stewardship on dairy farms
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter 
• Publications: no publications available currently

In 2021, CVM asked the Reagan Udall Foundation for the FDA (the Foundation) to seek input from a variety of affected stakeholders about strategies for collecting data regarding antimicrobial use in food-producing animals. This project is an important opportunity to consider strategies for collaboration between the public and private sectors. CVM hopes that through this stakeholder dialogue, it can learn about capabilities and challenges facing the veterinary, agricultural, and public health communities when it comes to collecting and sharing antimicrobial-use data. The Foundation is conducting this outreach under a cooperative agreement with the FDA.

• Additional details are available through the Reagan-Udall Foundation Program Page: Antimicrobial Use Data in Food Animals
• Publications: 
  • Summary Report: Exploring the Potential for a Public-Private Partnership to Support the Tracking and Monitoring of Antimicrobial Use in Food-Producing Animals

Since 2016, CVM has funded two $300,000 grants for antimicrobial use and resistance data collection in food-producing animals. These efforts are intended to provide part of the baseline information on antimicrobial use practices in the four major food-producing animal species (cattle, swine, chickens, and turkeys), a critical element in measuring the overall impact of the agency’s judicious use strategy. We also expect the data collection efforts to provide important information on methodologies to help optimize long-term strategies for collecting and reporting such data. These projects may be funded through 2021.

Additionally, since 2020, CVM has funded two $200,000 grants for the collection of data on antimicrobial use in dogs and cats. Data collected will support efforts to assess potential associations between antimicrobial use practices in dogs and cats and antimicrobial resistance. Data collected through this cooperative agreement will support efforts to assess potential associations between antimicrobial use practices in dogs and cats and antimicrobial resistance. These projects may be funded through 2024. 

Awardee: University of Minnesota (Grant number 5U01FD007061-02)

• Project Title: Representative, scalable, and sustainable surveillance methodologies to track companion animal antimicrobial use
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: North Carolina State University (Raleigh) (Grant number 5U01FD007057-02)

• Project Title: Automated Data Collection on Antimicrobial Use in Dogs and Cats in a Tertiary Hospital and Private Practices
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: Kansas State University (Grant number 5U01FD005868-05)

• Project Title: Characterization of Antimicrobial Use in Beef Feedlots and Dairies
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter
• Publications:
  • Schrag, NFD, Godden, SM, Singer, RS, Lombard, JE, Wenz, JR, Amrine, DE, Lubbers, BV, Apley, MD. Improving farm-level antimicrobial stewardship benchmarks by reporting antimicrobial use within the context of both the magnitude of disease pressure and the outcome of therapy. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2022; 9: 1022557. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.1022557
  • Schrag, NFD, Apley, MD, Godden, SM, Lubbers, BV, Singer, RS. Antimicrobial use quantification in adult dairy cows – Part 1 – Standardized regimens as a method for describing antimicrobial use. Zoonoses Public Health. 2020; 67(Suppl. 1): 51– 68. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12766
  • Schrag, NFD, Apley, MD, Godden, SM, Singer, RS, Lubbers, BV. Antimicrobial use quantification in adult dairy cows – Part 2 – Developing a foundation for pharmacoepidemiology by comparing measurement methods. Zoonoses Public Health. 2020; 67(Suppl. 1): 69– 81. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12772
  • Schrag, NFD, et al. Antimicrobial use quantification in adult dairy cows – Part 3 – Use measured by standardized regimens and grams on 29 dairies in the United States. Zoonoses Public Health. 2020; 67(Suppl. 1): 82– 93. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12773
  • Hope, KJ et al. Antimicrobial use in 22 U.S. beef feedyards: 2016–2017. Zoonoses Public Health. 2020; 67(Suppl. 1): 94– 110. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12775
  • Hope, K.J. et al., Comparison of surveys and use records for quantifying medically important antimicrobial use in 18 U.S. Beef Feedyards. Zoonoses Public Health, 2020. 67(S1): p. 111-123. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12778

Awardee: Mindwalk Consulting Group (Grant number 5U01FD005878-05)

• Project Title: Antibiotic Use Data Collection in U.S. Poultry and Swine Production
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter  
• Publications:
  • Davies, PR, Singer, RS. Antimicrobial use in wean to market pigs in the United States assessed via voluntary sharing of proprietary data. Zoonoses Public Health. 2020; 67(Suppl. 1): p. 6-21. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12763
  • Singer, SS et al., Estimates of on-farm antimicrobial usage in broiler chicken production in the United States, 2013-2017. Zoonoses Public Health, 2020. 67(Suppl. 1): p. 22-35. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12764
  • Singer, RS et al., Estimates of on-farm antimicrobial usage in turkey production in the United States, 2013–2017. Zoonoses Public Health. 2020; 67(Suppl. 1): p. 36– 50. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12763

In 2019, CVM awarded two $250,000 grants in 2019 and one $500,000 grant in 2020 to fund research projects to help target and define durations of use for certain medically important antimicrobial drugs approved for use in the feed of food-producing animals. These projects may be funded through 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Awardee: Kansas State University (Grant 1U01FD006804-01)

• Project Title: Defining targeted durations of use for tylosin phosphate to prevent liver abscess formation in feedlot cattle
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: Kansas State University (Grant 5U01FD006803-02)

• Project Title: Evaluation of chlortetracycline-treatment timing on the duration of treatment of bovine anaplasmosis in adult cattle
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: Texas A&M Agrilife Research (Grant 1U01FD007049-01)

• Project Title: Evaluating duration of tylosin phosphate treatment in feedlot cattle for liver abscess prevention to ensure efficacy while addressing concerns about antimicrobial resistance
• Additional project details are available through NIH Reporter
• Publications: no publications available currently

Vet-LIRN Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Program (U18):

As part of the National Action Plan, Vet-LIRN was tasked to develop, expand, and maintain antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) testing of veterinary pathogens isolated at veterinary diagnostic laboratories. To successfully monitor the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial pathogens, it is vital that veterinary diagnostic laboratories be incorporated into the nation’s other surveillance activities. Vet-LIRN is committed to being a partner in such an effort.

As of January 2022, Vet-LIRN labs collected antimicrobial susceptibility data for more than 15,000 animal pathogen isolates and more than 4,000 isolates were sequenced. The data so far provides a snapshot of the susceptibility of pathogens being cultured at referral veterinary laboratories. Vet-LIRN is partnering with the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) to make the data public (2018 AMR data, 2019 AMR data), with animal pathogen data being reported in conjunction with the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN).

CVM Vet-LIRN Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Program (U18)

CVM Vet-LIRN Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Program (U18) Clinical Trials Not Allowed

Learn more about Vet-LIRN

Interactive map of Vet-LIRN laboratories

Vet-LIRN Cooperative Agreements-Capacity Building (CAP) Grants

2018: new cooperative agreement, Vet-LIRN Network Capacity-Building Projects (U18).

This funding opportunity is intended to build domestic laboratory capacity under the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) and develop Vet-LIRN laboratory capability and capacity to investigate potential animal foodborne illness outbreaks. Vet-LIRN laboratories may apply for funding for research related to emerging public food safety issues identified by Vet-LIRN and for equipment and personnel necessary to expand laboratory capability and capacity. This cooperative agreement also allows the network to leverage emerging technologies such as whole genome sequencing (WGS), particularly as a part of the Vet-LIRN AMR Program.

Vet-LIRN currently has 7 ongoing capacity grants with a variety of stewardship goals.

Awardee: Kansas State University (Grant number 1 U18 FD006990-01)

• Project Title: Prototype Reporting and Veterinarian and Animal Owner Educational Materials for Cases of Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria of Public Health Importance in Companion Animals
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: Cornell University (Grant number 1U18FD006992-01)

• Project Title: Lab-supported Antimicrobial Stewardship at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals

Awardee: University of Pennsylvania (Grant number: 1 U18 FD006984-01)

• Project Title: A Multicenter Study to Evaluate Veterinary Students' Confidence and Competence in Antimicrobial Selection
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: University of Pennsylvania (Grant number: 1 U18 FD007496-01)

• Project Title: Development of an Educational Video in Support of Vet-LIRN Antimicrobial Stewardship Efforts
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: Ohio State University (Grant number: 1 U18 FD007232-01)

• Project Title: Building sequencing capacity to address nosocomial infections in primary care and referral veterinary medical facilities
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee: Ohio State University (Grant number: 1 U18 FD007232-01)

• Project Title: Facilitating antimicrobial stewardship with an educational video series approach
• Publications: no publications available currently

Awardee:  Purdue University (Grant number: 1 U18 FD007714-01)

• Project Title: Competency-based training modules for antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention in veterinary and veterinary nursing curricula
• Publications: no publications available currently

Learn more about previously funded Vet-LIRN cooperative agreements

Where is this information accessible?

Vet-LIRN makes its animal pathogen antimicrobial resistance data public as part of the annual NARMS Integrated Report and NCBI. 

NARMS Partner Laboratories

NARMS boasts coverage of 24 states via 23 partner laboratories from universities, state departments of public health, and departments of agriculture that purchase retail meat and seafood samples and culture them for target bacteria. They submit these isolates to FDA, where scientists may confirm the isolates’ species and serotype, perform antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and conduct genetic analyses using whole genome sequencing on a proportion of the isolates submitted.

Where is this information available? 

The NARMS program now routinely performs whole genome sequencing on nearly all sampled isolates and deposits the results into a national pathogen tracking database at the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Biotechnology Information.