ROLE AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTION OF VETERINARY LABORATORIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA RELATED TO THE ACCREDITATION SYSTEM

Veterinary laboratories include laboratories dealing with veterinary diagnostics and food safety studies. These are laboratories that carry out diagnostic tests in veterinary medicine, regarding to bacteriological, serological, virological, parasitological, chemical, biochemical, physical, pathological and radiological tests. These laboratories are also engaged in testing food, feed and drinking water, as well as tests in order to assess the microbiological purity of equipment, devices, appliances, working surfaces, work clothes and workers' hands in production and marketing in facilities and means of transport that come in contact with food, in which there is a risk of the occurrence and spread of an infectious disease. The aim of the study is to determine the role and directions of the development of veterinary laboratories in B&H in relation to the accreditation system. In this way, we are getting an insight into the condition and significance of veterinary laboratories in food and animal health control in order to protect the health of animals and humans. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, eight veterinary laboratories are accredited, three in Republic of Srpska and five in Federation of B&H. All eight (100%) accredited test methods in the field of food testing, while six (75%) accredited test methods in the field of veterinary diagnostics. The participation of accredited veterinary laboratories in the total number of accredited laboratories for food in the Republic of Srpska is 37.50%, in the Federation B&H it is 23.80%, while at the level of B&H it is 27.60%. Accredited veterinary laboratories in B&H have accredited tests in 10 technical sub-areas of food testing, and in seven sub-areas their participation in the total number of accredited laboratories for food in B&H amounts to 50% or more. The participation of accredited veterinary laboratories in the microbiological examination of feed and surface swabs is 80%. Physico-chemical testing of feed, testing of residues and contaminants in food and testing of radionuclide activity in food and feeds in B&H are performed exclusively by accredited veterinary laboratories (100%). Accredited veterinary laboratories in B&H have accredited a total of 41 different test methods in seven technical sub-areas in the field of veterinary diagnostics. 30 different test methods were accredited in the RS (73.20%), while 31 test methods (75.60%) were accredited in the Federation of B&H. In accredited veterinary laboratories in B&H, test methods for the diagnosis of the causitive agents of 25 different animal diseases were accredited, of which 19 in the Republic of Srpska (63,30%), and 20 in the Federation of B&H (66,70%). The technical sub-area of serological testing was accredited by all accredited veterinary laboratories, and the participation of serological testing methods in the total number of accredited test methods in the field of veterinary diagnostics in the Republic of Srpska is 53.30%, in the Federation of B&H 64.50%, and in B&H 53.70%.