The International Symposium on Quality Management in Veterinary Laboratories, organized by the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) from 3-4 July, at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi, concluded on Thursday, in the presence of HE Rashid Al Rasas Al Mansouri, Executive Director of ADAFSA's Animal Wealth Sector, specialists from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and representatives of the country's national veterinary laboratories.

The symposium was also attended by Prof. Venicio Caporali, former Director of the Italian Veterinary Laboratory Network and founder of quality systems in the OIE's veterinary laboratories, Dr. Karim Tounkara, the OIE Regional Representative for Africa, Dr. Salama Al Muhairi, Director of ADAFSA's Veterinary Laboratories, and many employees who have extensive experience in quality systems in veterinary labs.

During opening the symposium, HE Rashid Al Mansouri, affirmed the significant role of ADAFSA's veterinary labs in diagnosing and preventing diseases. He underlined the importance of implementing quality systems to ensure diagnostic efficiency, and drawing on the expertise existing in ADAFSA technical and administrative quality.
"The symposium is a valuable opportunity for exchanging expertise and skills and enriching our experiences in quality assurance and business continuity management in veterinary labs, particularly as it brings together representatives of local and regional national veterinary labs, international experts from the OIE, and a selected group of livestock specialists and professionals. This makes the symposium an integrated meeting bringing together parties interested in enhancing veterinary labs' performance and improving the effectiveness of biosecurity to cooperate in attaining our common goals and serving our communities.

During the symposium, specialized presentations were given on the importance of quality management systems in the veterinary laboratories and the return of implementation. The lectures also highlighted the most important requirements of ISO / IEC17025: 2017 standard.

The symposium's participants recommended the need to apply quality systems in veterinary labs and adopt quality as a scientific course in veterinary medicine and labs. They stressed the importance of raising the national labs preparedness and efficiency to control epidemics arising from animal diseases, preparing a list of the most important animal diseases in the country, and providing the necessary materials for diagnosing such diseases. Moreover, the participants recommended the importance of having a reference laboratory in quality management system for the region concerning with training and assisting other laboratories of in this field.

ADAFSA's veterinary labs contribute to enhancing the emirate's biosecurity and responding to epidemiological emergencies by diagnosing diseases using state-of-the-art technology and conducting laboratory analysis on diagnostic specimens, disease surveys, vaccine efficacy, immunity and livestock development analysis. The authority's veterinary labs also participate in many international scientific events and achieved many global, regional and national accomplishments in disease diagnosis and laboratory analysis.

Thanks to the role of ADAFSA, the OIE named Abu Dhabi to host its sub-regional representation (SRR). The move enhances Abu Dhabi's position and strengthens cooperation between the OIE and the Member Countries of the region, namely GCC countries and Yemen. It also supports the organization's efforts to improve animal health worldwide, by ensuring control of global animal diseases and developing international standards to facilitate safe trade in livestock.