A classification for the laboratories

The inception workshop of the West and Central Africa Veterinary Laboratory Network for avian influenza and other transboundary diseases (3-7 December 2007, Bamako, Mali) identified, for training purposes, three groups of laboratories:

Group 1 – laboratories not likely to improve avian influenza diagnosis capacity in the short term and whose staffs are to be trained in autopsy and sampling techniques as well as in basic microbiology procedures.

Group 2 – laboratories to be upgraded for performing molecular diagnostics.

Group 3 – laboratories that already perform molecular diagnostic work but need to be upgraded for higher quality functionality.

The participants elected, among the Group 3 laboratories, the National Veterinary Research Institute of Vom, Nigeria, and the Laboratoire National de l’Elevage et de Recherches Vétérinaires (LNEVR) of Dakar, Senegal as their two regional laboratories.

The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe) of Italy, one of the FAO/OIE reference laboratories for HPAI and Newcastle disease, will provide technical support to the network through training, testing, supplying reference reagents, protocols and coordinating inter-laboratories ring trials.