Improving Antibiotic Stewardship in Pigs and Beef Cattle: Call for Letters of Intent

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Grants Management Team

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About Improving Antibiotic Stewardship in Pigs and Beef Cattle: Call for Letters of Intent

The International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture (ICASA), one of the largest public-private partnerships focused on antibiotic stewardship in animal agriculture, is issuing two separate calls for research concepts, one to improve detection, treatment and prevention of infectious lameness in pigs and the other to develop new diagnostic methods and technologies that facilitate antibiotic traceability across the beef and pork supply chains.

Mycoplasma hyosynoviae is an organism prevalent in swine herds that can invade the joints and may lead to swelling and lameness. The condition is a major driver of antibiotic use in pigs but is difficult to diagnose by standard laboratory methods. The ICASA Swine Health Working Group is soliciting concepts related to the development of novel diagnostic protocols and procedures to better detect pigs that are infected with M. hyosynoviae, to conduct epidemiological studies, and/or evaluate standard therapeutic strategies that enhance the judicious use of antibiotics for this condition.

Several states and municipalities require grocers to report numeric data on antibiotic use for meat products. However, producers and suppliers of these products do not have a straightforward method to collect antibiotic use data across their entire supply chains. Additionally, it is unclear how to incentivize the adoption of antibiotic traceability technologies by smaller-scale producers, given the additional time and cost involved in adoption of these tools. The ICASA Technologies Working Group is seeking projects related to early disease detection, pathogen control or elimination and antibiotic use traceability in beef cattle and pigs.

Application Guidelines

How do I apply?: Applications must be submitted through FFAR’s online application receipt system. If you are a new user, register for an account by clicking the green “Register” button at the top right corner of the home page. You will receive a confirmation email to activate your account before you can sign-in to your account. Once you log in, click on the corresponding program to start your application.

Only applications submitted through this portal will be considered eligible for evaluation. FFAR will not accept applications submitted by any other medium. There is a two-hour grace period for all deadlines. Applications that are not submitted by the deadline or within the grace period will not be accepted. To be fair to all our applicants, FFAR cannot grant an extension to applicants who missed the deadlines posted in the Key Dates section.

What is the review criteria?

Full applications are evaluated based the following review criteria. Reviewers will evaluate and score each criterion. Evaluation of the scientific merit of each application is within the sole discretion of the reviewers, and they may raise additional factors to consider that are not covered in the bullets for each criterion.

Potential for supply chain implementation/adoption
Potential for high impact on antibiotic stewardship
Likelihood for successful project completion / Identification & mitigation of risks
Key personnel qualifications and research environment
Novelty, innovation, originality of idea
Leveraging partnerships

Are matching funds required for this opportunity?: Matching funds are OPTIONAL for this program. If the applicant provides matching funds, the applicant agrees to identify and certify matching funds annually prior to disbursement of award funds. The match share is intended to supplement, not supplant existing funding for the principal investigator (PI). The applicant will abide by FFAR’s Matching Guidelines to meet FFAR’s matching requirements, available here: https://foundationfar.org/grants/applicant-resources/about-matching-funds/. To constitute a valid match, all matching funds on a FFAR grant must be expended during the grant period.

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