The Veterinary Laboratories Agency
Woodham Lane
New Haw
Addlestone
Surrey KT15 3NB
United Kingdom
to coordinate, in consultation with the Commission, the methods employed in the Member States for diagnosing BSE, specifically by:
storing and supplying corresponding tissues containing the agent, for the development or production of the relevant diagnostic tests or for typing strains of the agent;
supplying standard sera and other reference reagents to the national reference laboratories in order to standardise the tests and reagents used in the Member States;
building up and retaining a collection of corresponding tissues containing the agents and strains of TSEs;
organising 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;
characterising isolates of the TSE agent by the most up-to-date methods to allow greater understanding of the epidemiology of the disease;
keeping abreast of trends in surveillance, epidemiology and prevention of TSEs throughout the world;
maintaining expertise on prion diseases to enable rapid differential diagnosis;
acquiring a thorough knowledge of the preparation and use of diagnostic methods used to control and eradicate TSEs;
to assist actively in the diagnosis of outbreaks of TSEs in Member States by studying samples from TSE-infected animals sent for confirmatory diagnosis, characterisation and epidemiological studies;
to facilitate the training or retraining of experts in laboratory diagnosis with a view to the harmonisation of diagnostic techniques throughout the Community.