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FDA
May 8, 2003
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are working to expand the National Laboratory Response Network (LRN) and the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) to include a substantial number of counter terrorism laboratories capable of analyzing foods.
The CDC is expanding the scope of its cooperative agreements in the current funding cycle to include preparedness and response capacity of state food laboratories and other laboratories. The expanded network will accommodate the need for effective and efficient testing of food specimens to help public health officials deal with apparent or actual incidents of biological or chemical terrorism.
This broader network is imperative because, during a terrorist event that involves food, public health laboratories that analyze clinical specimens will be busy with their primary work. Analyzing food requires special equipment, reagents, and skills. This extra burden may tax the capabilities even of a well-trained and equipped clinical laboratory.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through CDC, for the past 3 years has been building a counter-terrorism infrastructure in state, local, and territorial health departments by strengthening epidemiology and laboratory programs and related activities.
Cooperative agreements between CDC and health departments began a four-year budget cycle on August 31, 1999, and CDC announced on May 2nd the availability of FY2003 continuation funds for these cooperative agreements to improve public health preparedness and response for bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.
By expanding funding opportunities to include these types of labs, it will help integrate official food laboratories into the counter-terrorism laboratory response network.
State food laboratories whether they are located in the state health department,
state department of agriculture or academic centers, are encouraged to contact
their State Health Officer as soon as possible to apply for the CDC's continuation
funds. Each State Health Department will submit a single state application to
the CDC, and requests for assistance for food laboratories should be included
in that application, by July 1, 2003. If a state food laboratory submits an
application directly to the CDC it will be rejected.
FDA will assist CDC with the technical reviews of applications with respect
to the envisioned roles of food microbiology and chemistry/toxicology laboratories.
FDA will be looking especially for indications that the applications are technically
sound, responsive to national food security needs, and well coordinated with
the total application and capabilities of the state submitting the application.
Richard Barnes, FDA's Director of Federal-State Relations, will coordinate FDA's role in the grant review process, as well as address questions from state food laboratory directors, state health officers, and others regarding the application process for food laboratories. To contact him, please call (301) 827-6906 or email him at dfsr@ora.fda.gov.
Either your state health department coordinator or Richard Barnes can provide access to the CDC's "Continuation Guidance - Budget Year Four Public Health Preparedness and Response for Bioterrorism, Program Announcement 99051", which further explains the cooperative agreements, as well as a link to the necessary electronic forms to submit to your State Health Department.
Food and Drug Officials in state health departments and state departments of agriculture should pay particular attention to the following sections of the cooperative agreement when preparing their part of the state application:
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