Development and Maintenance of Human and Animal Food Rapid Response Teams - Abstract: Tennessee Rapid Response Team Application 2023 The Tennessee Rapid Response Team (TNRRT) will work with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) State Public Health Laboratory (SPHL), the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA), the University of Tennessee (UT) Agriculture Extension, and the TDH Foodborne Enteric Diseases (FED) Program, in a collaborative manner. TDH believes that the past and continued success of its enteric outbreak response structure is reliant on having strong relationships with these partners. We will leverage our existing relationships to collaborate with organizations/programs contributing to the success as a RRT member within Tennessee, e.g., the Environmental Health Specialist Network (EHS-Net), Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), Foodborne Diseases Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement (FoodCORE), Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence (CoE), and the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), and FDA. TDH strives to be a leader in the area of foodborne illness investigations and environmental health. TDH is an active voluntary RRT state and fully supports the goals and projects of the national RRT mission by integrating activities within the state. We have been a voluntary RRT site since 2018 and place a high priority on activities which foster the collaborative RRT network. Since 2018, the TNRRT has participated in monthly RRT meetings, annual RRT conferences, and the environmental assessment addition to the RRT Best Practices Manual workgroup. We believe that becoming a fully funded RRT will improve our ability to fully develop the RRT structure, cultivating our existing outbreak response metrics. Our activities foster a collaborative network between a range of programs in Tennessee and nationally. These programs and activities will work synergistically with the TNRRT and RRT consortium members. This application will demonstrate our TNRRT development objectives, our voluntary TNRRT activities, and how we can leverage our existing structure to fully develop an effective RRT in Tennessee.
