Summary

Crucial to livestock trade and the effective management of animal disease control and eradication programmes is confidence that the results emanating from a particular country can be relied upon as correct. This article describes an External Quality Assurance Programme for use with FAO/IAEA ELISA kits that attempts to achieve this. In addition, the EQAP aims to establish a network of internationally accepted and recognised veterinary laboratories that will facilitate epidemiological information exchange and in the current atmosphere of international trade agreements (WTO), provide a greater opportunity to increase trade in livestock and livestock products for developing countries.

  The EQAP involves the collection of information on laboratory management and staff, an evaluation of routine testing provided by the internal control sample data and proficiency testing by means of an external quality control (EQC) test panel sent out twice a year. In the longer term efforts will develop and implement with the collaboration of project counterparts the GLP and Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) for veterinary laboratories in developing countries. In close links with the OIE and/or the OECD and the World Trade Organisation, the EQAP should be expanded to form a wider system encompassing a variety of diagnostic tests and procedures as conducted in developing countries.