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The Commission, in close collaboration with the Member States, has carried out a call for selection and designation of the European Union Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease, taking into account the criteria of the technical and scientific competence of the laboratory and its staff expertise. Since to date the designated laboratory was in Pirbright, United Kingdom.
Following completion of the selection procedure, the successful laboratory was the consortium ANSES & CODA-CERVA set up by the Laboratory for Animal Health of the Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), Maisons-Alfort, France, and the Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre (CODA-CERVA), Uccle, Belgium.
In order to avoid any disruption of activities of the European Union reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease and to allow the newly designated European Union reference laboratory sufficient time to be fully operational, it is appropriate that the measures provided for in this Decision apply as from 1 January 2019.
In its Scientific Opinion on Swine Vesicular Disease and Vesicular Stomatitis, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that swine vesicular disease has no longer an epidemic potential and can be rapidly diagnosed by laboratory testing. In addition, the epidemiological situation as regards swine vesicular disease in the European Union has improved significantly and the last cases were only detected through laboratory testing of samples from a small region in a single Member State. Since 2014, swine vesicular disease is no longer listed as notifiable disease by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
Furthermore, swine vesicular disease and other vesicular diseases are included in certain functions and duties set out for the European Union reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease, and in particular as regards the capacity of national reference laboratories and the European Union reference laboratory to carry out the differential diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease. All these elements together allow discontinuing the designation of a European Union reference laboratory for swine vesicular disease.
Friday January 26, 2018/ OJEU/ European Union.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu
