WASHINGTON — The US Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it would help fund three projects to collect, analyze and report data on antimicrobial use (AMU) in animals.

This grant program was designed to support long-term AMU data collection efforts under development in the United States, including proposed public-private partnerships in this area.

“The FDA looks forward to working with the animal health community and relevant stakeholders to gain a better understanding of how and when antimicrobials are being used in animals in the US,” the agency stated. “This AMU data collection program will support the continued advancement of FDA’s initiatives to promote antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary settings.”

The first project the FDA noted was from Mindwalk Consulting Group LLC, which propose to expand an ongoing, nationally representative and sustainable system for collecting on-farm quantitative AMU data on the turkey, broiler chicken and table egg industries. The agency said this work can help address critical data gaps and build upon previous FDA-funded projects.

Cornell University proposed to collect multiple years of detailed AMU data from dairy farms and develop an AMU monitoring system. The system would include incentivizing farmer participation and providing insight into the perceptions and needs of dairy farms.

Finally, Kansas State University proposed leveraging multiple existing databases for US livestock and poultry AMU data and applying advanced computational and analytical tools to develop a dashboard that shows AMU data trends.

Each participant in the cooperative agreements will receive $200,000 for fiscal year 2024 and with the potential to continue funding for up to four additional years depending on annual appropriations, availability of funding and satisfactory recipient performance.