The view from the Director’s office

June 2025 is audit time for AHL. A site visit team of four auditors from the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) will be visiting us June 2-5; their task will be to examine the quality system involving all administrative and scientific sections of AHL operations. AHL is one of 4 Canadian veterinary diagnostic laboratories that are currently AAVLD-accredited. There are also 35 accredited US labs. Site visits occur every 5 years to ensure that the laboratory maintains the quality management system standards established by the AAVLD Accreditation Committee. Successful re-accreditation provides AHL clients with an assurance of high quality and credible laboratory results. If you are interested in more details regarding the AAVLD Accreditation Program, please check out this web-site reference: https://www.aavld.org/accreditation-program-2 [1]

As part of the audit, a group of AHL stakeholders and clients is invited to meet with the audit team to discuss their interactions with AHL – both positive experiences and those that did not meet client expectations. We welcome this valuable feedback as an important means of ensuring continual improvement. As always, a huge thanks to AHL’s quality assurance team who spend many hours preparing us for this important audit.

I hope that you are able to take some time off to enjoy a great Canadian summer with your families and friends. 

Maria Spinato, Director

Animal Health Laboratory, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON.