Question NW243 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
06 April 2020 - NW243
Steyn, Ms A to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
Whether the Onderstepoort laboratory is accredited to conduct the testing for Foot-and-mouth disease; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
The ARC-OVR-Transboundary Animal Diseases (TAD) Facility includes a high security facility for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine production, and Research and Diagnostics of FMD, African Swine Fever (ASF), and other exotic diseases. TAD houses an OIE Regional Reference Laboratory for ASF and FMD and is the FAO Reference Centre for both FMD and ASF for the entire African continent.
The TAD Diagnostic Laboratory applied for SANAS (South African National Accreditation System) accreditation of its FMD Serological methods to standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005, in December 2015. The SANAS assessment was conducted from 29-30 March 2016, and a certificate of accreditation was obtained on 20 June 2016, which is valid for five years. The 6 months follow up assessment tookplace on 24 January 2017and continued accreditation was granted. The twelve months’ follow-up assessment by SANAS took place on 31 January 2018 and continued accreditation was again granted.
TAD Diagnostic Laboratory facility further applied for accreditation according to the new ISO 17025:2017 standard, this was approved by the SANAS Approval Committee meeting on 21 August 2019. “Unconditional Accreditation” in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025:2017, Accreditation number V0034 was granted. The ARC-OVR-TAD Laboratory was the first laboratory at ARC-OVR to be assessed to the new ISO standard.