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OIE TSE Reference Laboratory

World Organisation For Animal Health (OIE) Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) Reference Laboratories are designated to pursue all the scientific and technical problems relating to these diseasea. The role of the Reference Laboratory is to function as a centre of expertise and standardisation of diagnostic techniques for TSE. The contact details for the other three OIE TSE Reference Laboratories (in Switzerland, Japan and Canada) are given below.

Our principal mandate is to:

• function as a centre of expertise and standardisation for TSE.
• store and distribute to national laboratories biological reference products and any other reagents used in the diagnosis and control of TSE.
• develop new procedures for diagnosis and control of TSE.
• gather, process, analyse and disseminate epizootiological data relevant to TSE.
• place expert TSE consultants at the disposal of the World Organisation For Animal Health (OIE).

TSE diagnosis documentation

The following documents support the TSE chapters in the OIE Manual Of Diagnostic Tests & Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals.

Please contact us by email (tseeucrl@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk) if the information you require is not available on these pages or on our EU CRL pages.

Diagnostic criteria

• Histopathology and immunohistochemistry (117kb pdf)

• Illustrations of disease-specific PrP depositions - ovine (388kb pdf)

• Illustrations of disease-specific PrP depositions - bovine (89kb pdf)

• Western Blotting and Scrapie Associated Fibril (SAF) extraction (643kb pdf)

Current methods/protocols

• Discriminatory Testing handbook (version 4 January 2010) (1.4mb pdf)
  Version 4 is only available electronically. Version 3 (electronic copies) and all paper copies of versions 1 and 2 are now obsolete and should be discarded.

• Fixation, tissue processing, histology and immunohistochemistry staining procedures (updated July 2005) (37kb pdf)

• Sampling issues (100kb pdf)

• OIE guidelines for confirmation of BSE. OIE rules for the official confirmation of BSE in bovines by using a second rapid test - version 2 (33kb pdf)

Procedure for submission of material to VLA for confirmatory diagnosis

• Guidelines for material submission (14kb pdf)

Other OIE TSE Reference Laboratories

• Institute of Animal Neurology, University of Bern
  Bremgarterstrasse 109A,
  3012 Bern
  SWITZERLAND

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Lethbridge Laboratory
  Township Road 9-1,
  Post Office Box 640,
  Lethbridge,
  Alberta,
  CANADA

• Prion Diseases Research Unit, National Institute of Animal Health,
  National Agricultural Research Organization
  3-1-5 Kannondai, 
  Tsukuba,
  Ibaraki 305-0856
  JAPAN
  

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa Laboratory* 3851 Fallowfield Road,
  P.O. Box 11300,
  Station H,
  Nepean,
  Ontario K2H 8P9
  CANADA