Annex III COMMUNITY REFERENCE LABORATORIES FOR THE DISEASES CONCERNED

The functions and duties of the Community reference laboratories for the diseases concerned shall be:

1. 1..

   to coordinate, in consultation with the Commission, the methods employed in the Member States for diagnosing the disease concerned, specifically by:

   1. (a)

      typing, storing and supplying strains of the virus of the relevant disease for serological tests and the preparation of antisera;

   2. (b)

      supplying standard sera and other reference reagents to the national reference laboratories in order to standardize the tests and reagents used in the Member States;

   3. (c)

      building up and retaining a collection of virus strains and isolates of the relevant disease;

   4. (d)

      organizing periodic comparative tests of diagnostic procedures at Community level;

   5. (e)

      collecting and collating data and information on the methods of diagnosis used and the results of tests carried out in the Community;

   6. (f)

      characterizing isolates of the virus of the relevant disease by the most up-to-date methods to allow greater understanding of the epizootiology of the disease;

   7. (g)

      keeping abreast of developments in the surveillance, epizootiology and prevention of the relevant disease throughout the world;

   8. (h)

      retaining expertise on the relevant disease virus and other pertinent viruses to enable rapid differential diagnosis;

   9. (i)

      acquiring a thorough knowledge of the preparation and use of the products of veterinary immunology used to eradicate and control the relevant disease;

2. 2..

   to assist actively in the diagnosis of outbreaks of the relevant disease in Member States by receiving virus isolates for confirmatory diagnosis, characterization and epizootiological studies;

3. 3..

   to facilitate the training or retraining of experts in laboratory diagnosis with a view to the harmonization of diagnostic techniques throughout the Community.