Veterinary Biobanks ensure availability of high-quality biological samples and associated data, in order to facilitate scientific progress on epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention of infectious diseases and public health development.
To this end, the activities of the WOAH/OIE Collaborating Centre for Veterinary Biologicals Biobank are:
To this end, the activities of the WOAH/OIE Collaborating Centre for Veterinary Biologicals Biobank are:
- harmonize quality biobanking operating procedures according to the OIE standard requirements and to the international guidelines. IZSLER has recently drafted the OIE Guidelines for the Establishment, Operation and Networking of Veterinary Biobanks with the help of OIE ad hoc Group experts and the Science and New Technologies Department of the OIE. The guidelines have been endorsed by the Biological Standard Commission[1].
- improve the cooperation in sharing biological resources, including reference materials and reagents. IZSLER will lead the project for the development of the OIE Virtual Biobank, in collaboration with a Group of OIE Reference Laboratories and the OIE. The OIE Virtual Biobank is a web-based catalogue of biological resources and associated metadata, held in biobanks hosted by OIE’s Reference Centres and National Reference Laboratories, and thus facilitate the search for and availability of high value biologicals, especially OIE-approved standard reagents and other diagnostic reagents.
- collection, storage and distribution of biological resources (mainly bacteria, viruses, cell cultures and immunological products). All samples included in the biobank, have been checked in their main characteristics and other specific quality features, in order to ensure their correct identity, purity and to suggest the use. These samples are derived mainly from the diagnostic and research activities of IZSLER.
- Deposit of biological resources as a second site or backup security system (safe deposit), for deposit in the open collection (open deposit) and for patent deposit under the Budapest Treaty.
The Veterinary Biobank infrastructure is certified ISO 9001:2015. Furthermore, IZSLER uses a Management Quality Control System for its services, aimed at giving reliable analytical results, which are based on the international UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025 for accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories.