The Ministry of Agriculture team working at the B.C. Animal Health Centre is once again being recognized for its expertise in veterinary diagnostic testing.

The accreditation committee of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) has renewed a five-year accreditation for the centre. The accreditation is a formal, third-party recognition that an organization is competent to perform the specific tasks for which it is accredited. The centre's audit by the AAVLD included a site visit in May 2018.

The B.C. Animal Health Centre is one of three laboratories in Canada accredited by the AAVLD as a veterinary diagnostic laboratory. It is housed in a distinct red building that thousands of commuters drive past each day on Highway 1 in Abbotsford. The Fraser Valley centre provides over 400 laboratory diagnostic tests for agents that may be found in wild and domestic birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

The accreditation is a continuous quality improvement process demonstrating that international and/or nationally prescribed standards have been met, including:

• promoting consistent and reliable client services
• assuring the procedures performed meet clients' expectations
• creating accountability for work performed
• maintaining trust among trading partners

The B.C. Animal Health Centre handles over 6,000 case submissions annually while diagnosing, monitoring and assisting in controlling and preventing diseases such as avian influenza, West Nile virus and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease).

The facility also provides a wide range of high-quality, fee-for-service diagnostic testing to the livestock and veterinary industries including pathology, bacteriology, serology, molecular diagnostics and virology in animals, poultry and fish.

Learn More:

B.C. Animal Health Centre: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/animals-and-crops/animal-health/animal-health-centre

American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians: https://www.aavld.org/