Press release
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee – announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded The Ohio State University (OSU) $1,460,000 to prevent poultry respiratory diseases. The grants were administrated through NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), which is authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
“These federal resources will help The Ohio State University researchers ensure the health and safety of our nation’s poultry industry,” Brown said. “With egg and poultry production creating more than 14,600 jobs annually in Ohio alone, fighting respiratory diseases in poultry is a top priority.”
OSU researchers will develop new diagnostic tools, vaccines, and other measures to detect, control, and prevent poultry respiratory disease. In awarding these grants, USDA emphasized projects that offered alternatives to antimicrobials, to avoid antimicrobial resistance.
In 2014, Brown was part of the Senate Farm Bill Conference Committee that successfully negotiated a five-year farm bill that had been stalled for more than three years.