The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded a $713,517 grant to a collaboration that includes the FAZD Center to develop a curriculum that will improve education about transboundary and high-consequence diseases that threaten animal agriculture.

With matching funds from federal and non-federal sources,the total grant comes to $893,883.

Kansas State University will lead the project. Other partners include Iowa State University, Texas A&M University, the Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases (CEEZAD) at Kansas State, and the Joint Pathology Center in the U.S. Department of Defense.

The project will create new educational content about select transboundary and high-consequence zoonotic diseases that affect food animals.

As its part of the project, the FAZD Center will establish a “community of learning” that will bring effective teaching strategies to pathology trainees and teaching assistants.

Audiences for the improved curriculum include veterinary students, graduate veterinarians, veterinary diagnosticians, animal health professionals and government officials.

Director for the project is Dr. Derek Mosier at Kansas State University. Co-directors are Dr. Jim Roth, director of Iowa State’s Center for Food Security and Public Health; Dr. Bruce Williams, senior pathology at the Joint Pathology Center; Dr. Heather Simmons, Education & Outreach theme leader at the FAZD Center; and Dr. Juergen Richt, director of CEEZAD.