Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program Request for Applications

About Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program Request for Applications

The Swine Health Information Center, with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and Pork Checkoff, is funding a Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program to be implemented over the next two years. SHIC, FFAR and Pork Checkoff are soliciting proposals to investigate cost-effective, innovative technologies, protocols or ideas to implement biosecurity during the wean-to-harvest phase of production.

The research priorities that follow focus on site and transportation biosecurity. They cover three areas – bioexclusion for preventing disease introduction on the farm, biocontainment for preventing disease spread from the farm to reduce risk to neighboring facilities, and transportation biosecurity for preventing disease movement from markets and other first points of concentration back to the farm. We are seeking novel tools across all three areas for a comprehensive biosecurity approach.

Proposals are expected to define current practices and propose innovative and novel protocols or technologies that address the research priorities and that may have a cost, efficiency, or implementation advantage. Herd health status monitoring, instead of disease outbreak incidents, can be used to demonstrate biosecurity-effectiveness and an economic analysis can be used to demonstrate cost-effectiveness. Collaborative projects that include pork industry, allied industry and/or academic public/private partnerships, that demonstrate the most urgency and timeliness of completion and that show efficient use of funds, will be prioritized for funding. If project duration is extended to assess seasonal effects, a justification for timeline should be clearly stated.

There is a pool of approximately $2.3M available for the research. Proposals are capped at $200,000 but individual proposals may be higher with sufficient justification for a project that will be unique, high impact and have industry-wide benefit.