MSU and USDA-ARS Kick Off New Research Unit Geared towards Geospatial and Environmental Epidemiology

Starkville, Mississippi: A New Partnership for Advanced Research

Recently, a collaborative assembly of distinguished scientists from Mississippi State University (MSU) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), alongside various federal and academic experts, convened to finalize strategies for a new research unit that will concentrate on geospatial and environmental epidemiology. The partnership is a significant leap in the field of contemporary scientific inquiry, facilitating newer methodologies in cropping practices, predictive biology, and disease epidemiology.

Building on Strong Foundations

The new collaborative entity, officially named ARS Geospatial and Environmental Epidemiology Research Unit, will be a joint venture involving the USDA Agricultural Research Service, MSU’s Geosystems Research Institute, College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The partnership is a testament to the long-standing associations between MSU and USDA-ARS, the latter renowned as USDA’s principal in-house research institution.

A Confluence of Powerfully Advanced Technologies

The core mission of the new unit focuses on leveraging cutting-edge geospatial analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning for innovative methodologies. The research unit aims to establish scientific collaborations, combining distinct sets of information and data. These combinations will cultivate novel insights and groundbreaking research tools, profoundly shaping the landscape of epidemiological research.

MSU and USDA-ARS: A Success Story

USDA-ARS has accommodated significant research collaborations with MSU with their offices placed within close proximity of MSU’s campus in Starkville and the Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center in Stoneville. A notable example of these successful collaborations is Atlas, a new high-performance computing cluster launched in 2020, to cater to USDA’s research needs.

A Celebration of Multidisciplinary Work

Keith Coble, the MSU Vice President for Agriculture, Forestry, and Veterinary Medicine, expressed his sentiments on the partnership, remarking,
“This has been a very valuable relationship, and all of us working together makes us better. This is an opportunity to continue multidisciplinary work in partnership with ARS, and we are truly excited about it“.

Workshopping the Future

The recent workshop organized by this conglomerate of scientists served as a platform to delineate project priorities and design multi-year plans. The meting outlined several related research projects undertaken by MSU, including disease transmission mapping in cattle feedlots, the evolution of disease susceptibility in poultry and livestock, the utilization of animal sound monitoring for disease prediction in aquaculture ponds, and development of an integrated sensor-radar system for honeybee disease spread prediction, among others.

Relevance and Impact

MSU is nationally recognized as a leader in agricultural research and ranks 11th nationally for research and development expenditures in agriculture and natural resources. With impactful contributions from its esteemed College of Veterinary Medicine, the Geosystems Research Institute, and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, MSU continues its steady go-forward in enriching global food production strategies and practices.