FAO and USAID Support Kenya Central Veterinary Lab. to have Testing and Calibration Competence
Central Vet. Lab. receives ISO/IEC 17025:2017
Zoonotic diseases remain a serious problem for the Kenyan population. Outbreaks of rabies, brucellosis, rift valley fever and anthrax still occur intermittently in different parts of the country. However, the country has made great strides in combating this challenge. National veterinary laboratories are at the heart of veterinary services' Transboundary Animal Disease (TAD) control programmes and therefore play a crucial role in preventing, detecting and responding to animal health threats.
FAO and USAID Support
FAO offers support to member countries in preventing, detecting, and responding to threats of animal origin by strengthening capacities of national and sub-national epidemiology and laboratory systems through continuous staff training, provision of tools and standardized methodology. In Kenya, FAO has been supporting the strengthening of regional and national veterinary laboratories through technical advice and assistance, coordination and logistical support provided by its Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding.
In 2016, as part of the implementation of the pilot project entitled “Improving Policy for Veterinary Laboratories in Kenya”, FAO contributed to the development of a national veterinary laboratory policy, following a review of veterinary laboratory policies at national and regional level conducted in 2013. In 2019, FAO brought together Quality Assurance Focal Points from National Veterinary Laboratories in Eastern Africa and Anglophone countries from West Africa to a Regional Training Workshop to strengthen capacities on Quality Assurance.
Improved Diagnostic Capacity
During this period, FAO ECTAD increased diagnostic capacity of eight sub-national and two national veterinary laboratories in Kenya, providing critical infrastructural improvements, equipment, reagents and improving biosecurity and biosafety systems for more effective prevention and faster response to outbreaks.
Ms. Rose Matua, Director of Laboratory Services at the Directorate of Veterinary Services explains that “all the staff in the national veterinary laboratories have been trained on implementation of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and are able to effectively implement the standard”. She adds that through support from FAO and USAID, CVL staff improved their proficiency testing capabilities with FAO and OIE reference laboratories, where satisfactory results were obtained for rabies, brucellosis and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
As part of this laboratory strengthening work, FAO, together with the Government of Kenya and the Fleming Fund project, supported national referral laboratories, such as the CVL Kabete and the National Veterinary Quality Control Laboratory Embakasi, to obtain ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation for 62 testing procedures.
FAO has contributed effectively to the establishment and improvement of the application of appropriate measures to carry out the diagnosis of infectious animal diseases under satisfactory safety conditions for the handler and the environment. Following this contribution, in May 2021, FAO facilitated a working session with the Director of Veterinary Services on this ISO standard, to enable national veterinary laboratories to demonstrate that they operate competently and generate valid results, thereby promoting confidence in their work both nationally and around the world.
Accreditation
In March 2022, the CVL finally undertook a three-day assessment by the Kenya National Accreditation Service (KENAS) and obtained ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation, thanks in part to the big support by FAO and USAID in developing Standard Operative Procedures (SOPs), procuring equipment, primers and probes that were available during the assessment, maintaining and calibrating equipment, installing the Laboratory Information Management (LIMS) tool for standardization of laboratory diagnostic processes and better sample tracking or providing funding for the accreditation process by the National Accreditation Body (KENAS) on behalf of the Directorate of Veterinary Services/CVL, among many other interventions.
Through ECTAD, FAO continues to develop national technical laboratory capacities for competence and to build a critical mass of laboratory specialists, as this is a strategic imperative to effectively manage transboundary and zoonotic diseases that may impact on animal and public health and on people’s economies and livelihoods.
Learn more.
Publication: https://www.fao.org/3/bb010e/bb010e.pdf
For More Information Contact
Dr. Joseph Othieno
FAO Kenya Communications Officer
Mobile: +254 721 448 462
Email: [email protected]
Yanira Santana
Emergency Outreach and Reporting Consultant
Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD)
Email: [email protected]