FDA allocates funds for data collection and reporting on antimicrobial use in animals

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a cooperative agreement funding three projects to collect, analyze, and report antimicrobial use (AMU) in animals. The funding will be provided for fiscal year 2024, with each recipient receiving $200,000. The program aims to support long-term initiatives to collect AMU data in the country, including a draft of public-private partnership frameworks to improve tracking of AMU in food-producing animals. The funding may extend for up to four additional years, depending on annual appropriations, funding availability, and the recipient’s performance. The projects include Antimicrobial Use Data Collection in the U.S. Poultry Production System, A System Approach to Animal-Level Antimicrobial Use Monitoring in Dairy Cattle, and Bridging Critical Data Gaps in Veterinary Medicine via Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Large Language Models.