EU Reference Laboratory for Fish and Crustacean Diseases (EURL Fish/Crustacea) (39866)

The European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for Fish and Crustacean Diseases is funded by the European Commission and is situated within the Unit for Fish and Shellfish Diseases at DTU Aqua – National Institute of Aquatic Resources at the Technical University of Denmark.

The functions and duties of the EURL are concerned with harmonizing diagnostic procedures for notifiable fish and crustacean diseases in Europe.

The Unit for Fish and Shellfish Diseases at DTU Aqua has since 1994 been designated as the EURL for fish diseases. From July 2018, the functions and duties were expanded to also include crustacean diseases.

Responsibilities and tasks:
1) Providing national reference laboratories with details and guidance on the methods of laboratory analysis, testing or diagnosis, including reference methods;
2) Providing reference materials to national reference laboratories;
3) Coordinating the application by the national reference laboratories and in particular, by organising regular inter-laboratory comparative testing or proficiency tests and by ensuring appropriate follow-up of such comparative testing or proficiency tests in accordance, where available, with internationally accepted protocols, and informing the Commission and the Member States of the results and follow-up to the inter-laboratory comparative testing or proficiency tests;
4) Coordinating practical arrangements necessary to apply new methods of laboratory analysis, testing or diagnosis, and informing national reference laboratories of advances in this field;
5) Conducting training courses for staff from national reference laboratories and, if needed, from other official laboratories, as well as of experts from third countries;
6) Providing scientific and technical assistance to the Commission within the scope of their mission;
7) Providing information on relevant national, Union and international research activities to national reference laboratories;
8) Collaborating within the scope of their mission with laboratories in third countries and with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC);
9) Assisting actively in the diagnosis of outbreaks in Member States by carrying out confirmatory diagnosis, characterisation and taxonomic or epizootic studies on pathogen isolates;
10) Coordinating or performing tests for the verification of the quality of reagents and lots of reagents used for the diagnosis of fdiseases ;11) Reference collections of reference strains of pathogenic agents;
12) Up-to-date lists of available reference substances and reagents and of manufacturers and suppliers of such substances and reagents;
13) To develop methods of analysis, testing or diagnosis of high standards.

Funding
The EURL for Fish and Crustacean Diseases is funded by the EU Commission, DG SANCO.

Research area: Fish and Shellfish Diseases