The U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services has announced the implementation of new requirements for approved laboratories conducting Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) Testing.
Testing apparatus for equine infectious anemia
No vaccine or treatment for equine infectious anemia is available, and the infection is often not apparent, resulting in a carrier state if the horse survives the acute phase of the infection.
© 2020 by AAEP
Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) is a viral disease affecting only members of the equidae family (horses, ponies, zebras, mules, and donkeys). No vaccine or treatment for equine infectious anemia is available, and the infection is often not apparent, resulting in a carrier state if the horse survives the acute phase of the infection.
Changes affecting the submitting veterinarian are the following:
- Laboratories can only accept samples from federal accredited Category II Accredited Veterinarians. Laboratories are to confirm accreditation status prior to testing the sample. To check your accreditation status, visit https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/nvap/ct_areavet and click “Check My Accreditation Status.” The system will report your Category, Renewal & State(s) Authorized.
- By April 15, 2020, veterinarians must use the current federal approved forms or approved systems (i.e. VS Form 10-11 dated Feb 2018 or VSPS e10-11 form) Contact your local animal health official to obtain current forms.
- All fields in the form are required to be filled in or indicated as N/A. Laboratories are to reject incomplete forms and not test the sample.
- At the discretion of the laboratory amended forms can be processed as long as they are received within 30 days of blood draw date, all previous distributed copies are returned to the laboratory and change of ownership is not one of the items being amended.
- Labs are required to refer all non-negative test samples to the National Veterinary Service Laboratory for confirmatory testing. The ELISA test is sensitive and some false positive results are expected. The required testing at NVSL may delay results up to 5 days, so clients should be advised to plan accordingly.
For more information, visit USDA APHIS’s EIA webpage https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animalhealth-eia; in the dropdown choose: EIA Documents and References.
Press release from USDA APHIS