Description
The American Rescue Plan provides financial assistance “for research and extension activities to strengthen early detection, rapid response, and science-based management to address wildlife disease outbreaks before they become pandemics and strengthen capacity for wildlife health monitoring to enhance early detection of diseases that have capacity to jump the species barrier and pose a risk in the United States.” Funding will be used to establish and enhance Tribal, State, and Territorial fish and wildlife agencies capabilities to effectively address health issues involving free-ranging terrestrial, avian, and aquatic wildlife and minimize the negative impacts of health issues affecting free-ranging wildlife through surveillance, management, and research to protect the public against zoonotic disease outbreaks. This new federal assistance program is designed to increase readiness for wildlife agencies to protect against future pandemics and encourage them to coordinate their efforts across jurisdictions in a seamless manner. Assistance will be available for a range of activities with the goal of the program being to strengthen the foundation of an interjurisdictional landscape-level wildlife health and disease network to protect wildlife, ecosystems, economies, and the American public. This goal will be supported through the following objectives:Wildlife managers have a current, evidence-based wildlife disease plan which considers: Disease surveillance and techniques for surveillance strategies Diagnostic pathology, microbiology, virology, parasitology, toxicology,, and biosafety Outbreak response Wildlife population management Regulatory and policy response Data management Risk assessment and decision support Training Communication plans so that key stakeholders receive and understand information about wildlife diseases in a timely manner. State, territorial, and Tribal managers in the same regions are connected in an interjurisdictional network of practitioners, including public health and veterinary services.Wildlife managers have access to diagnostic services for wildlife disease.Wildlife managers have capacity to manage wildlife health data, data sharing, and communication.Project length is one to three years. Allowable actions:Allowable Actions Examples A. Best management practices for fish and wildlife diseases Develop fish and wildlife disease Best Management Practices (all-inclusive/across the board); issue-specific BMPs such as feeding wildlife, water quality and quantity management, integrated pest management plans B. Biosecurity & biosafety Develop biosecurity and biosafety protocols/education for field work, management practices, handling, captive facilities; develop and implement biosecurity protocolsC. Communications, internal and external Develop a rapid communication structures and relationships for both routine and emergency disease events (in-state, regional, national; wildlife/ag/public health); develop a suite of external (public) communication templates for wildlife disease issues D. Disease forecasting, risk assessments, horizon scanning Identify current and future needs; assessments to identify gaps in capacity; current and future state associated with climate change; environmental persistence and potential routes of exposure to pathogens; identification of spillover hotspots; identification of highly susceptible species locations; host susceptibility research; research on human health and economic implications of wildlife diseases; risk assessment of “reverse zoonotic transmission” from humans/livestock to wildlife E. Disease management planning Disease contingency plans for regions or organizations for emergency and routine morbidity and mortality events; inclusion of guidance for wildlife disease as part of Wildlife Action Plans; development of disease-specific field responses; structured surveillance plans; carcass disposal protocols and agreements; plans for creating a sustainable, long-term disease management program; systems approaches to develop management actions F. Disease surveillance design Design enhanced surveillance systems for early detection and monitoring at biologically relevant spatial scales that will provide statistically significant results; environmental surveillance approaches (e.g. aquatic for waterborne pathogens) G. Emergency response Emergency response plans; develop inter-jurisdictional response capabilities; clarify agency responsibilities and funding streams for covering the costs of emergency response; ensure agency contacts are up to date; set up mutual aid agreements; table top and field exercises; development of an All-Hazards Incident Management Team with fish and wildlife disease skillset; foreign animal disease outbreak plans; After Action analysis (hot wash) of disease response activities and management interventions; structured-decision making/adaptive management/modeling approach to determine how to move forward in a disease response with a large amount of uncertainty; Design long-term monitoring programs to follow-up on response activities and detect recurrence of the disease issue and/or lasting impacts to the population as a result of the disease or the management response to it H. Hire staff dedicated to fish and wildlife health duties Hire fish and wildlife biologists and technicians to increase field response capabilities (“boots on the ground” for detection of disease events, sample collection, sample processing, and response); Fish and wildlife veterinarians, ecologists, social scientists, biologistsI. Human dimensions Examining tolerance of management interventions (e.g. timing, locations); risk perceptions and how those can be influenced or utilized to address disease issues; what messages and messaging formats are most effective; educational campaigns based on human dimensions research; risk communication; knowledge translation and mobilization; Conflict resolution - working with partners to resolve chronic sources of conflict when addressing fish and wildlife health, focus groups, stakeholder meetings, social science evaluations, training in conflict resolution J. Increasing resilience and protecting environmental services to decrease the impact of disease Prevent or decrease human & domestic animal interactions with wildlife; add a component to wildlife action plan for increasing resilience against disease; safe harbor agreements; collaborations with EPA; addressing invasive and injurious species through prevention, response, control of invasive and injurious species that could serve as reservoirs of disease; water quality K. Information management systems State/Tribe level data manager, production of reports, maps, data interpretation and visualization; Conversion of legacy data into electronic formats that can be entered into databases; create data management plan; Data sharing strategies between wildlife agencies, and also between wildlife/ag/public health agencies;L. Jurisdictions & authorities Inventory of existing statutory and regulatory framework; conduct a gap analysis of statutes and regulations from detection to recovery; Resolution of inter-jurisdictional issues; Development of laws, regulations, and ordinances; Ensuring an enabling environment exists for wildlife agencies to enact a wildlife health program (legislative authorities) and that agencies have organizational capacity (plans, people, infrastructure), and technical capacities to enact the program (training, etc.) M. Laboratory network and services Establish new or strengthen existing diagnostic networks; Expansion of diagnostic services available; Join a regional diagnostic lab service as a member (e.g. SCWDS, NWDC), or agreements with state-level and national labs; Logistics and equipment for sample collection, archiving, and storage N. Partnerships and networks Strengthening existing networks and governance structures, creating new networks and partnerships; formalize partnerships through Memoranda of Understanding or other documents; nurturing the wildlife health Community of Practice to be inclusive of Federal, State, Territorial, and Tribal agencies; activate citizen scientists for disease detection and response O. Policy and regulation development Develop policies and regulations to prevent disease introduction, decrease disease transmission, respond to disease events, increase resilience, measure success, adaptive management, create sustainable fish and wildlife health programsP. Public health Create guidelines, policy, and outreach regarding biosafety and public health for personnel, volunteers, and visitors; create linkages and collaborations with local, State, Territorial, and Tribal public health offices for routine and emergency events; hire public health expertise Q. Research to develop disease detection and management tools Projects focused on applied disease prevention, surveillance, management, detection techniques, ways to limit disease transmission, promoting resilience, to support an adaptive management approach R. Tools and management strategies development for climate adaptation and mitigation for disease impacts Systematic collection of health data and integration with climatic and environmental data to determine species and populations at risk from health effects of climate change; Utilization of health promotion and harm reduction approaches in development of adaptation strategies; analysis of wildlife/zoonotic diseases prone to expansion due to climatic changes. S. Training Didactic and hands-on courses for biologists, veterinarians, law enforcement officers, volunteers, rehabbers, and partners on: Fish and wildlife disease, incident management, biosafety/biosecurity/personal protective equipment use; inter-jurisdictional collaborative training; creating consistency in training across States, Territories, and Tribes; establishment of training programs for wildlife health professionals T. Wildlife rehabilitation Instituting and improving biosecurity & biosafety practices of rehabilitators to prevent or minimize disease transmission; developing release protocols to reduce impacts on ecosystems; increasing disease diagnostics for animals submitted to rehabilitators Award funds cannot be used for real property acquisition or construction.Data ManagementTribes are encouraged, but not required, to store wildlife disease data in the United States Geological Survey (USGS) WHISPers data base. WHISPers allows agencies the ability to define their data use and availability to others, as well as circles of connection with other entities. Whether or not your agency chooses to use WHISPers, you will be required to develop a data management plan to be delivered with the first annual report for your ARP ZDI project.Reporting RequirementsARP ZDI awards require annual financial and performance reporting, consisting of the SF-425 financial report form and a 1-2 page narrative of how the project is going, what has been accomplished from the proposal and what still has to be completed. At the end of the project the same 2 reporting elements are required, but with the entire award term as the base of reporting. All reports are due 90 days after the reporting period ends.Letters of SupportLetters of Support are required from any organization taking action as part of your proposal.WebinarsInformational webinars will be held at 3 pm eastern time on February 22, March 13, and April 5 at https://www.zoomgov.com/j/16019506690