ANNEX BU.K.FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES OF THE COMMUNITY REFERENCE LABORATORY FOR DISEASES OF BIVALVE MOLLUSCS
The function and duties of the Community reference laboratory shall be:
to coordinate, in consultation with the Commission, the methods employed in Member States for diagnosing diseases of bivalve molluscs, specifically by:
building up and retaining a collection of histological slides, strains or isolates of the relevant pathogens and making these available to approved laboratories in the Member States;
organizing periodic comparative tests of diagnostic procedures at Community level;
collecting and collating data and information on the methods of diagnosis used and the results of tests carried out in the Community;
characterizing isolates of pathogens by the most up-to-date and appropriate methods to allow greater understanding of the epizootiology of the disease;
keeping abreast of developments in the surveillance, epizootiology and prevention of the relevant diseases throughout the world;
retaining expertise on relevant disease pathogens to enable rapid differential diagnosis;
to assist actively in the diagnosis of disease outbreaks in Member States by receiving pathogen isolates for confirmatory diagnosis, characterization and epizootic studies;
to facilitate the training or retraining of experts in laboratory diagnosis with a view to the harmonization of diagnostic techniques throughout the Community;
to collaborate as regards methods of diagnosing exotic diseases, with the competent laboratories in third countries where those diseases are prevalent.