1.Laboratories, facilities and other natural or legal persons handling disease agents for the purpose of research, education, diagnosis or the production of vaccines and other biological products shall, whilst taking into account any relevant international standards:
(a)take appropriate biosecurity, biosafety and bio–containment measures to prevent the escape of the disease agents and their subsequent contact with animals outside the laboratory or other facility handling disease agents for those purposes;
(b)ensure that the movement of disease agents, vaccines and other biological products between laboratories or other facilities does not give rise to a risk of the spread of listed and emerging diseases.
2.The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 264 concerning the safety measures for the prevention and control of listed and emerging diseases as regards laboratories, facilities and other natural or legal persons handling the disease agents, vaccines and other biological products in relation to:
(a)biosecurity, biosafety and bio–containment measures;
(b)movement requirements for disease agents, vaccines and other biological products.
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).