QUALITY ASSURANCE IN VETERINARY DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORIES

The authors discuss the responsibility of veterinary diagnostic labora tories as suppliers of analytical data for tests on animals and animal products. The guarantee of the quality of analytical data is a basic quality requirement for veterinary certification. It is therefore impo rtant for the laboratory to adopt operational quality assurance standa rds which are recognised internationally. The management and quality a ssurance criteria contained in the International Standardisation Organ isation/International Electrotechnical Commission Guide 25, or in dire ctives or guidelines established by international organisations such a s the Office International des Epizooties and the Coder Alimentarius o f the Food and Agriculture Organisation, are reviewed. These documents provide procedures for adopting the principles of quality assurance i n order to acquire the recognition of competence to execute the labora tory tests required for national and international veterinary certific ation.