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Atlantic Veterinary College facilities. (Photo Credit: AVC)
ISA lab delisted after issuing incorrect results
(CANADA, 7/9/2013)
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has issued a statement clarifying its role in the decision to delist the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) as a World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reference laboratory. The delisting has scientists worried that other labs may now be hesitant to report infectious salmon anaemia (ISA).
In Canada, all suspected cases of ISA must be immediately reported to the CFIA for follow-up investigation and testing. In late 2011, the former OIE reference laboratory at the AVC said it found evidence of ISA.
Any suspected cases of ISA must be confirmed at a designated federal laboratory, but the positive test results reported by the AVC were not corroborated by the National Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory overseen by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
To address the differences observed in these test results, the CFIA conducted evaluations of both laboratories to see which could more reliably detect the ISA virus in accordance with accepted scientific standards. The evaluation conducted at the AVC identified concerns that could have bred the questionable ISA test results; the OIE has since been informed.
After another OIE member country also reported issues related to ISA test results from this laboratory, the OIE undertook an independent audit of the AVC. The audit is performed by an international panel of scientific experts, and found various weaknesses affecting the quality of diagnoses performed at the AVC laboratory.
Subsequently, the decision to delist this laboratory as an OIE reference laboratory was approved unanimously by the General Assembly of the OIE last May.
It was one of only two labs in the world recognized by the group for the testing of ISA, The Canadian Press reports.
"This is creating a very chilly environment for people to investigate the presence of this virus in the Pacific Ocean," said Rick Routledge, a professor at Simon Fraser University who gave the lab the salmon samples that tested positive. "It's a very distressing situation."
By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media
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