The EURL team was happy to welcome our colleagues from the Danish NRL, Per Kryger, head of the NRL, and his technician, Anna la Cour, to support them in their process of accreditation on regulated diseases. They were welcomed by Stéphanie Franco and Véronique Duquesne, also heads of the French NRL for Bee Health, Karim Sidi-Boumedine, the bacteriology project manager and former laboratory quality manager, and Marie-Pierre Rivière, head of the HoneyBee Pathology Unit and deputy head of the EURL. After a presentation given by Per on the Danish NRL activities, fruitful discussions took place and visits of the laboratory allowed to give concrete examples on how to perform diagnosis methods compliant with international standard ISO 17025. Hence, our Danish colleagues could benefit from the expertise of Stéphanie and Véronique for methods on varroosis and infestations by Aethina tumida and Tropilaelaps spp. as well as expertise of Karim and Stéphanie for American and European foulbrood, together with Jean-Charles Thomarat, technician in bacteriology. The EURL team was delighted to welcome Per and Anna, after two years of virtual meetings, and gave them support in this process.

The first physical management meeting of the year was held in IZSLER facility in Brescia from 28 to 29 March 2022. Thirteen members of the Centre met in order to prepare the future period’s work-programme, the third CAs meeting, and work together on the 2022 various tasks. The health director of IZSLER Giuseppe Merialdi was pleased to welcome all consortium members.  After the meeting, four members of the Centre took the opportunity to visit a hatchery on March 30. The ovosexing system was presented, as a practical demonstration of the equipment running in the hatchery. 

On 31 March 2022, the coordinator and deputy coordinator met with the Italian Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (CReNBA). Both EURCAW-Poultry-SFA and CReNBA presented their teams, past, present, and future activities. The Classyfarm System was detailed and possible training and best practices collaboration were discussed.

  The inter-laboratory test (ILT) focused on the evaluation of the real-time RT-PCR techniques is underway. Samples have been dispatched to all the laboratories who registered to take part to this ILT. One of the goals of this test is to realise an inventory of all the molecular biology techniques (MBT) used and available in each lab of the European Union. This inventory will create a good opportunity to compare and check efficiency caracteristics of real-time RT-PCR techniques. Deadline for submission of the results is may 6th 2022. The Eurl Team wishes the best to all participants.

The registration in the 13th workshop for rabies that will held on 15 and 16 June 2022 in Warsaw is now closed. Due to the current geo-political situation, the workshop originally planned from a "face to face" solution will move to an hybrid conference event. This will allow, participants of the Workshop to choose whether to participate remotely, or physically. For organisation matter, if not done already, please inform us rapidly of your choice of attendance. This 13th session of the workshop for rabies will address the current situation of rabies surveillance and control in EU. More details as the provisional agenda will be soon relayed to registered participants. Looking forward to see you soon!

I am happy to share the first publication of Thierno Diallo and Yassine Makni in the framework of their PhD projects Amphibie and AlimOmic, respecitvely. In this study, they developed a QuEChERS-LC-HRMS method for the screening of 204 pesticides in bivalves. In addition to the optimisation of the QuEChERS method using design of experiments, the impact of different HRMS acquisition modes on detection and identification were also evaluated.

ISAH, the International Society for Animal Hygiene, will organize the 20th ISAH Congress in a Hybrid format in Berlin, Germany from 5 to 7 October 2022. Registration is available here. ISAH members as online participants (all countries), and online participants from Ukraine and from developing countries have the possibility of a free of Charge Online participation. The Call of Papers is open until 31 March 2022 (Link). Abstracts and/or full-length papers of orals and posters will be published as Congress Proceedings. ISAH 2022 is dedicated to topics in animal hygiene as well as animal welfare and environmental protection such as:  Infectious diseases (including COVID-19) and AMR in the One Health context Pig production: infectious diseases (e.g. ASF) and disease preventing measures. Poultry production: infectious and non-infectious issues, novel technologies. Animal welfare - recent developments Farming systems with outdoor access - welfare and biosecurity Effluents/emissions from livestock and sustainable animal production Free topics For more information on the ISAH 2022 Congress, click here 

  The EURL team is gathering data from National Reference Laboratories around the European Union. This is part of the process which allows the laboratory to accomplish one of its duties : Coordinating the methods employed in the Member States for diagnosing rabies by collecting and collating data and information on the methods of diagnosis used and the results of tests carried out in the European Union. Every year, an online survey is indeed sent to all NRL's so they can share information and give accurate reports about the status of rabies testing in their respective countries for the past year. Through this survey, information such as number of cases per country, techniques used for passive surveillance as well as vaccination monitoring and related results are shared by the laboratories. Data collection will end on 15th April 2022. This work is essential, as it allows the EURL to ensure a continuous monitoring of rabies test results carried out into the community and to share the generated data within the network. The EURL Team would like to thank all participants for their contribution to this year's review , as well as previous ones.     

The MiteControl project will be running a Livestream from 14:00 to 16:45 on 16 March 2022. This event is to host a series of demonstrations on practical red mite monitoring methods, best practices for cleaning during poultry houses during the empty period, and non-chemical methods trialed as part of the project for controlling red mite. The demonstrations will be livestreamed from the Experimental Poultry Centre in Belgium which will allow for these to be demonstrated in-situ within a laying hen house environment. There will be opportunities for questions and answers at the end of the session. The event will be focused on the practicalities of these topics and so will be very relevant for farmers, farm advisors, and veterinarians interested in red mite control.     If you are interested in attending, join this link on 16 March 2022 from 14:00: www.livestream-mitecontrol.com.  

Florian Dubocq et Yassine Makni nous ont présenté l'utilisation de GNPS et les réseaux moléculaires via MSDial. Ils ont employé ces outils pour leurs projets respectifs et ont illustré la pertinence de tels outils.   vidéo séminaire