Location: Research Programs
2024 Annual Report
Objectives
The Agrosecurity Partnerships for Innovative Research (ASPIRE) Program provides the framework by which NBAF will enhance America’s agricultural biosecurity by forming strategic partnerships to support the NBAF Strategic Plan and National Biodefense Strategy. This includes facilitating regional, national, and international collaborations, performing research gap analyses and capability assessments, creation of research and response networks, spurring innovation and enhancing participation of underrepresented populations within the animal-health scientific enterprise.
Approach
The goal of National Program 103, Animal Health, is to protect and ensure the safety of the Nation’s agriculture and food supply through improved disease detection, prevention, and control. Basic and applied research approaches will be applied to solve animal health problems of high national priority. The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) will take over the mission of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) and be the ARS lead facility for Foreign Animal Disease research. NBAF will 1) provide solutions to problems associated with the control, eradication, and recovery of foreign and emerging diseases, and 2) maintain a portfolio of expertise that will allow ARS to rapidly respond to new and unforeseen disease threats.
The research addresses the following research components in the 2022-2027 Animal Health National Program (NP 103) Action Plan: 1) Component 1: Biodefense, Problem Statement 1A, Control and eradicate foreign animal diseases and Problem Statement 1B: Predict and prevent emerging diseases. Further, the research addresses ARS Strategic Plan Goal 4.3 to protect and ensure the safety of the nation’s agriculture and food supply through improved disease detection, prevention, and control.
Progress Report
Objective 1. The Agrosecurity Partnerships for Innovative Research (ASPIRE) Program provides the framework by which the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) will enhance America’s agricultural biosecurity by forming strategic partnerships to support the NBAF Strategic Plan and National Biodefense Strategy. This includes facilitating regional, national, and international collaborations, performing research gap analyses and capability assessments, creation of research and response networks, spurring innovation and enhancing participation of underrepresented populations within the animal-health scientific enterprise.
A Scialog initiative was funded to focus on the theme of Mitigating Zoonotic Threats. Scialog is an innovative approach to building collaborations among a community of early career scientists developed by the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement (RCSA). A series of three annual Scialog meetings on Mitigating Zoonotic Threats were conducted to foster new collaborative projects among Scialog Fellows. It is expected that this project will impact the animal public health field by initiating novel interdisciplinary collaborations among earl career scientists. All of the 15 funded proposals have produced scientific results, and several have resulted in additional grant funding for the Scialog partners. The final year proposals have been funded.
An additional effort was funded to integrate into established programs for force health and health security, focused on suppressing known and emerging environmental pathogens such as Japanese encephalitis, malaria, Zika, and dengue. This will allow success metrics to be reliably evaluated, due to clearly defined situational awareness and data needs, access to pilot environments, and accepted countermeasures. Selection of pilot sites will consider biosecurity aspects near the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which has been the source of novel outbreaks, such as malaria and hantavirus in the Republic of Korea (ROK). The outputs of this demonstrator will include direct measures of benefits to force health protection and health security missions, reusable bio-hardening blueprints, and operating requirements for adaptable biosensing and Artificial Intelligence infrastructure. The work resulted in the discovery and description of a shift in Japanese encephalitis virus genotype 1 being the dominant virus in circulation in 2021 to the rare genotype 5 being the only detected genotype in South Korea in 2023. This shift was associated to the identification of new vector species. The identification of a new genotype circulation and in new vector species has resulted in changes to countermeasure planning such as when and where mosquito population management methods must focus.
During 2024 the Phase 3 of the Bio-Safety Level-4 (BSL-4) suit development project was completed. In Phase 3, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) works towards the following objectives:
Component and interfaces testing according to requirements developed during Phase 1 and suit design developed in Phase 2.
Revision to the initial BSL-4 ensemble design according to feedback on the prototypes developed during Phase 2.
Production of six prototype BSL-4 ensembles.
Testing and evaluation of BSL-4 ensembles according to metrics, specifications, and requirements developed during Phase 1.
Solicitation of end-user feedback on finished prototypes.
Manufacturer selection and manufacturing plan development. The manufacturing plan will include product technical data package creation that will detail the product design, bill of materials, equipment information, production instructions, supply chain information, testing requirements and product pricing forecast / modelling.
To date, a prototype suit has been built with non-Berry Compliant materials for presentation at the Phase 2 user evaluation event. Materials used have a path to Berry Compliance (i.e. can be made domestically but have high minimum order quantities prohibitive to prototyping). The suit built with Phase 3 funding was the users favorite for materials and components, with 88% of the 104 users surveyed citing preference for the Phase 3 funded suit.
At the conclusion of Phase 2, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data gathered at the user evaluation events at three government BSL-4 labs and summarize it into a list of 46 changes and tests to implement in Phase 3. Currently, AFFOA is working to close out Phase 2 and kick-off Phase 3.
Accomplishments
1. Scialog Workshops. Scialog Workshops. 3 annual conferences completed. Scialog workshops, which are short for "science + dialog", are important because they help early career scientists expand their research, form multidisciplinary teams, and collaborate on projects. The workshops are designed to spark creative ideas and scientific breakthroughs by maximizing interactions between researchers with different perspectives and experiences.
2. Bio-Safety Level-4 (BSL-4) prototype suit construction. Bio-Safety Level-4 (BSL-4) suit constructed from materials not compliant with Phase 2 contract for presentation at user evaluation event. The suit funded by Phase 3 was preferred by 88% of the users over the other suits presented.