National Reference Laboratories
National Reference laboratories (NRL) for fish diseases are appointed in each Member State, and in most neighbouring countries to the European Union.
NRLs coordinate the national surveillance for notifiable diseases, including quality assurrance of reference reagents and maintaining a library of previous disease cases in that country.
If regional laboratories are present in a country, then the NRL hold the responsibility for organising periodic comparative diagnostic tests for those laboratories and for confirmation of positive cases obtained in the regional laboratories.
The functions and duties of NRLs are described in Commission Decision article 12.