The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is awarding $30 million to state and local health departments supporting their efforts of tracking, investigating and preventing foodborne illness. Grant recipients will receive training for and access to advanced technology, including whole genome sequencers to improve detection and surveillance for antibiotic-resistance intestinal bacteria. Funding will also support enhanced Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence activities and seven new OutbreakNet Enhanced sites.
Additionally, health department grantees will increase their capacity to:
- Detect, investigate and respond to foodborne disease outbreaks;
- Report and exchange outbreak and surveillance data in a timely manner;
- Improve completeness and quality of data;
- Conduct routine and reliable surveillance of foodborne diseases;
- Respond to foodborne disease outbreaks with a trained workforce; and
- Detect emerging infectious diseases earlier.
Grant funding is made possible through a number of partnerships, mainly as a part of this year’s CDC Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) Cooperative Agreement. In total, $240 million was awarded through the ELC to help states detect, prevent and respond to growing threats posed by infectious disease. In addition, $14 million was contributed to this initiative from the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistance Bacteria.
For more information visit, the CDC Antibiotic Resistance and Food Safety webpage and the CDC ELC Cooperative Agreement webpage.
