USDA unleashes $11 million to fight animal disease outbreaks

Washington

-- Fifteen states will divide $11 million in grants, which are meant to reduce the number and severity of animal disease outbreaks and decrease dependence on the widespread use of antibiotics.

The projects were awarded through United States Department of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) National Research Initiative Animal Genome Program, which seeks to develop sound, practical, science-based knowledge that can be shared with other researchers, farmers and consumers of U.S. animal products.

These awards also support the training of the next generation of scientists by providing support for 25 post-doctoral fellows and 15 graduate students.

"Investing in good basic and applied research will help pinpoint genetic differences that result in superior animal products of the best quality for the consumer," says USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Grants were awarded to the following:

Auburn University, $725,000

University of California, Davis, $560,000

University of Southern California, $711,884

University of Delaware, $125,000

University of Georgia, $449,575

Iowa State University, $1,668,784

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, $449,421

USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS)/Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Md., $625,000

University of Maryland, $906,098

USDA, ARS/Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory (ADOL), Mich., $875,000

USDA, ARS/ADOL, $448,552

University of Minnesota, $997,632

University of Missouri, $125,000

Texas A&M University, $313,516

Texas A&M University, $125,000

Utah State University, $629,471

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, $585,613

Washington State University, $450,000

University of Wisconsin, Madison, $411,651