Location: Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-32000-113-001-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2020
End Date: Sep 30, 2025
Objective:
The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Laboratory Approval Service (LAS) plays a role in export verification by approving laboratories to perform testing of meat and poultry products destined for export. Foreign governments often require products destined for their country to be tested for chemical residues, microorganisms, and/or parasites and they require the U.S. government to oversee the testing and verify compliance. LAS oversees the Laboratory Approval Program for Export. For laboratories to participate in this program, they must participate in an ongoing proficiency testing (PT) program. Specifically, for companies to export pork, an AMS-certified analyst must test the pork carcasses for trichinae. One component of analyst certification is to successfully analyze initial and ongoing trichinae PT samples. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory provides the trichinae PT samples.
Approach:
ARS will supply LAS with an order request template so that LAS will provide ARS with all the necessary information to fulfill the PT sample request. ARS will uniquely identify each test “LAS Trichinae PT – YYYY QT#” ARS will provide a PT preparation package to LAS that includes:
1) how samples were prepared and shipped;
2) the answer key to the test; and
3) the record of shipment (shipping receipt and tracking information).
