Article 17U.K.

1.Member States shall ensure that in each Member State there is designated:

(a)a national laboratory with facilities and expert personnel enabling it to show at all times, and especially when the disease in question first appears, the type, sub-type and variant of the relevant virus and to confirm results obtained in regional diagnostic laboratories;

(b)a national laboratory at which reagents used in regional diagnostic laboratories are tested.

2.The national laboratories designated for each of the diseases referred to shall be responsible for coordinating diagnostic standards and methods, and for the use of reagents.

3.The national laboratories designated for each of the diseases referred to shall be responsible for coordinating the diagnostic standards and methods laid down by each laboratory for diagnosis of the disease in question within the Member State. To this end, they:

(a)may provide diagnostic reagents to national laboratories;

(b)shall control the quality of all diagnostic reagents used in the Member State;

(c)shall periodically arrange comparative tests;

(d)shall hold isolates of the virus of the disease in question from cases confirmed in the Member State;

(e)shall ensure the confirmation of positive results obtained in regional diagnostic laboratories.

4.However, by way of derogation from paragraph 1, Member States which do not have a national laboratory competent as regards the disease in question, may use the services of a national laboratory with competence in the matter of another Member State.

[F15. Member States shall maintain up-to-date lists of the national laboratories referred to in paragraph 1 and make them available to the other Member States and to the public.]

6.The national laboratories designated for each of the diseases referred to shall cooperate with the respective Community reference laboratories referred to in Article 18.

7.The detailed rules for implementing this Article shall be adopted by the Commission under the procedure laid down in Article 25.

Textual Amendments