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

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for technical assistance to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on native and invasive wildlife disease surveillance and investigations with dissemination of information through the proper channels for use in wildlife management and public relations.  Disease investigation priorities will include avian influenza, white-nose syndrome, cervid health including Chronic Wasting Disease, herptile diseases, tick-  borne-diseases, and wildlife zoonoses.  Information dissemination will include integration of the CESU partner’s disease surveillance data into the National Wildlife Disease Database (USGS’s Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership – Event Reporting System (WHISPers) and the Aquatic Disease and Pathogen Repository (AquaDePTH)) that was mandated under Section 6003(a) of the American Rescue Plan Act (Public Law 117-2). Information dissemination will also include presentations and participation in meetings with USGS scientists to encourage academic-federal collaborations on wildlife disease surveillance, morbidity and mortality investigations, and evidence-based disease management strategies. Wildlife includes native and invasive species.