Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with North Atlantic Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in developing a near real-time avian influenza (AI) risk assessment tool that is publicly available on the web, and which can be used to provide current and future “personalized” AI risk assessments to aid large and small poultry producers in implementing effective and efficient biosecurity measures.  Transboundary diseases at the poultry/wild bird interface, where pathogens are exchanged between wild and domestic species, can have significant impacts to wildlife, domestic animal, and human health.  Additionally, these diseases can often create devastating effects on economies at multiple scales.  AI is a transboundary disease that can have particularly overwhelming impacts, as demonstrated by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in 2014–2015, which cost US taxpayers $950 million dollars, with an overall economic impact estimated at $3.3 billion.  The current 2022-2023 outbreak of HPAI virus H5N1 is likely to have a greater economic impact, given its longevity.  Additionally, low pathogenic AI outbreaks in poultry facilities occur annually with associated economic effects, and transmission of novel viral types from poultry to wild birds has negatively impacted wild populations. Therefore, preventing and reducing the impacts of transboundary diseases is of critical importance from an ecological and societal perspective.