Quality assurance in veterinary diagnostic laboratories.

The authors discuss the responsibility of veterinary diagnostic laboratories 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 important for the laboratory to adopt operational quality assurance standards which are recognised internationally. The management and quality assurance criteria contained in the International Standardisation Organisation/International Electrotechnical Commission Guide 25, or in directives or guidelines established by international organisations such as the Office International des Epizooties and the Codex Alimentarius of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, are reviewed. These documents provide procedures for adopting the principles of quality assurance in order to acquire the recognition of competence to execute the laboratory tests required for national and international veterinary certification.