PART I

GENERAL RULES
CHAPTER 3

Responsibilities for animal health
Section 4

Laboratories, facilities and other natural and legal persons handling disease agents, vaccines and other biological products

Animal health laboratories
Article 17
1
Official laboratories for animal health, consisting of Union reference laboratories, national reference laboratories and official animal health laboratories, shall, in fulfilling their tasks and responsibilities, cooperate within a network of Union animal health laboratories.
2
The laboratories referred to in paragraph 1 shall cooperate under the coordination of the Union reference laboratories, to ensure that the surveillance, notification and reporting of diseases, eradication programmes, the definition of disease–free status, and the movements of animals and products within the Union, their entry into the Union and exports to third countries or territories provided for in this Regulation, are based on state–of–the–art, solid and reliable laboratory analyses, tests and diagnoses.
3
The results and reports provided by the official laboratories shall be subject to the principles of professional secrecy and confidentiality and the duty of notification to the competent authority which designated them, irrespective of the natural or legal person who requested the laboratory analyses, tests or diagnoses.
4
In the event that an official laboratory in one Member State conducts diagnostic analyses on samples from animals originating in another Member State, that official laboratory shall notify the competent authority of the Member State from which the samples originated:
a
immediately of any results indicating the suspicion or detection of a listed disease as referred to in point (a) of Article 9(1);
b
without undue delay of any results indicating the suspicion or detection of a listed disease as referred to in point (e) of Article 9(1) other than those referred to in point (a) of Article 9(1).