AHL achieves successful AAVLD and SCC laboratory re-accreditation status

Liz King     

Animal Health Laboratory, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON

AHL Newsletter 2019;23(4):4.

In May 2019, the Animal Health Laboratory was peer-audited for 4 days by four technical experts from the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD). It was a successful audit and AHL met the AAVLD standard to maintain “Full Accreditation/All species” for 5 years. Full accreditation for 5 years is the highest level of accreditation awarded by this organization.

In October and November, we had our biennial Standards Council of Canada (SCC) audit. This audit is required to maintain our accreditation to the International OIE Standard ISO/IEC 17025:2017 “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories”, as documented on our scope of accreditation (https://www.uoguelph.ca/ahl/about-us/accreditation). The SCC audit teams examine processes and records for each testing laboratory section, in addition to specimen reception, client services, facility, human resources, information technology, purchasing, quality assurance, our internal audit program, as well as verifying management commitment to our quality system. 

The strength of our mature quality system and knowledgeable staff was evidenced during all external audits by the many commendations we received from the AAVLD and SCC audit teams. Although it is a significant investment in time and resources for us to maintain our multiple accreditations, these external audits ensure that we maintain the highest degree of technical competence and promote continuous improvement of client services.