FARAD gets new life in 2002

摘要

The gift-giving holidays came early for supporters of the perennially underfunded Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank. In November, Congress approved 800,000 dollar for FARAD--the single largest appropriation in the program's 18-year history--as part of the 75.9 billion dollar agriculture appropriations package in fiscal 2002. President Bush signed it later that month. "We're ecstatic? said Dr. Jim Riviere, director of the FARAD site at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, one of three veterinary institutes overseeing the program."It gets us back into full operation" In addition to the one-year FARAD appropriation, several veterinary programs received funding at levels above last year's expenditures. These include 40 million dollar for the first phase of the initiative to consolidate and modernize the Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratories, the National Animal Disease Center, and the Center forVeterinary Biologics in Ames, Iowa; and 14 additional inspectors and support staff for the Animal Care unit of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.