Council Directive 92/35/EEC of 29 April 1992 laying down control rules and measures to combat African horse sickness (c. 35)

ANNEX III U.K. THE FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES OF THE COMMUNITY REFERENCE LABORATORY FOR AFRICAN HORSE SICKNESS

The Community reference laboratory has the following functions and duties:

1.

to coordinate, in consultation with the Commission, the methods employed in the Member States for diagnosing African horse sickness, specifically by:

(a)

typing, storing and supplying strains of African horse sickness virus for serological tests and the preparation of antiserum;

(b)

supplying standard sera and other reference reagents to the national reference laboratories in order to standardize the tests and reagents used in each Member State;

(c)

building up and maintaining a collection of African horse sickness virus strains and isolates;

(d)

organizing periodical comparative tests of diagnostic procedures at Community level;

(e)

collecting and collating data and information on the methods of diagnosis used and the results of tests carried out in the Community;

(f)

characterizing isolates of African horse sickness by the most up-to-date methods available to allow greater understanding of the epizootiology of African horse sickness;

(g)

monitoring developments in African horse sickness surveillance, epizootiology and prevention throughout the world;

2.

to assist actively in the diagnosis of African horse sickness outbreaks in Member States by receiving virus isolates for confirmatory diagnosis, characterization and epizootiologial studies;

3.

to facilitate the training or retraining of experts in laboratory diagnosis with a view to the harmonization of techniques throughout the Community;

4.

to carry out a mutual and reciprocal exchange of information with the world laboratory for African horse sickness designated by the International Office of Epizootics (IOE), in particular with regard to developments in the world situation concerning African horse sickness.