The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) has incorporated the missions, resources and personnel of the French Food Safety Agency (AFSSA) and the French Agency for Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (AFSSET). Its principal mission is to contribute to the protection of human health with respect to the environment, the workplace and food. On 1 July 2008, European Commission officially designated the French Food Safety Agency (AFSSA) as the European Union Reference Laboratory (EU-RL) for equine diseases (excluding African horse sickness).
> Commission regulation (EC) No 180/2008

The activities of the European Union Reference Laboratory are handled on 2 sites

• The Laboratory for animal health, Maisons-Alfort site (near Paris) studies West Nile, Viral Equine Encephalitis, Vesicular Stomatitis, Glanders and Melioidosis
• The Laboratory for animal health, Dozulé site (in Normandy) studies Contagious Equine Metritis, Dourine, Equine Viral Arteritis, Equine Herpes viruses and Equine Infectious Anaemia

  Duties of the EU-RL

The EU-RL provides full assistance to the NRLs for all the diseases concerned for the following tasks

• Study and confirmation of samples with unexpected or doubtful results
• Collection and identification of representative samples (strains and sera) isolated in Europe (transmitted from the NRLs to the EU-RL) and in third-party countries and maintenance of the collection
• Supplying the NRLs with standardised reagents and field or reference strains of pathogens

Improvement, harmonisation in consultation with the European Commission and development of new diagnostic tools

• Coordinate in consultation with the Commission the methods employed by Member States for equine diagnosis diseases
• Set up of new diagnosis methods as Enzyme Link Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kits or molecular diagnosis for equine diseases

Research on phenotypic and molecular diversity and epidemiological surveillance

• Genotyping of European strains isolated in the fields - Development of new vaccine in horses Information
• Organisation of Workshops, proficiency tests or training sessions each year for the NRLs

Information

• Organisation of Workshops, proficiency tests or training sessions each year for the NRLs