- Specialized diagnostic activity with different diagnostic methods (see below)
- Diagnostic approach in the case of outbreaks and definition of control procedures and guidelines for the eradication of the diseases in infected farms
- Legislative support for the Ministry of Health and Veterinary Regional Officers
- Capability of experimental trials (i.e. for assessing vaccine potency and efficacy) in BL3 confinement animal facilities. In the laboratories and animal facilities of IZSLER the rules and provisions given in the chapter 1.1.3.”Biosafety and biosecurity: standard for managing biological risk in the veterinary laboratory and animal facilities” of the “OIE Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals” are applied.
IZSLER uses a Management Quality Control System for its services, aimed at giving reliable analytical results, which are based on the international UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025 for accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories.
The adoption of such standards guarantees the technical competence and the impartiality of the laboratory in performing the analyses. This, indeed, become an element for the reciprocal recognition of the validity of the results at international level.
Today, IZSLER is enrolled on the register of the Accredia (the national organization recognized for the accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories) as n. 0148 and includes 17 locations and more than 1600 accredited methods. The list of accredited methods could be found here.
Most of the methods for serological and virologic diagnosis of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease and European Brown hare Syndrome have been developed “in house” and then standardized and listed among accredited methods (Table 1).
Table 1: List of methods used to diagnose lagoviruses
| Name of the method | Scope | IZSLER Code | Method type |
| RHD ELISA sandwich | Virologic diagnosis RHD | MP 05/027 MP 05/027A |
Accredited – OIE Manual for Terrestrial Animals cap. 2.6.2 par. B.1.1 |
| RHD PCR1 | MP 09/089 | Internal | |
| RHD Western blot | NK 2032 | Internal | |
| Haemoagglutination test | NK 2444 | Internal | |
| EBHS ELISA sandwich | Virologic diagnosis EBHS | MP 05/028 | Internal |
| EBHS PCR | MP 09/097 | Internal | |
| EBHS Western blot | NK 2087 | Internal | |
| Immuno-histochemical methods on thin section | Virological diagnosis RHD/EBHS | MP 07/003 | Internal |
| Drop method – Negative staining Electron Microscopy | Diagnosis of viral agents | MP 05/002 | Internal |
| Ultracentrifugation method – Negative staining Electron Microscopy – | MP 05/003 | Internal | |
| Immune-electron-microscopy (IEM) Negative staining Electron Microscopy – | Diagnosis and typing of viral agents | MP 05/023 | Internal |
| Total antibodies – MAbs2 based competitive RHDV ELISA (kit IZS-BS) | Antibodies anti-RHDV | MP 04/087 MP 04/087A |
Accredited – OIE Manual for Terrestrial Animals cap. 2.6.2 par. B.2.2 |
| Total antibodies – MAbs2 based competitive RHDV2 ELISA (kit IZS-BS) | Antibodies anti-RHDV2 | MP 04/158 | Internal |
| Total antibodies – MAbs2 based competitive EBHS ELISA (kit IZS-BS) | Antibodies anti-EBHSV | MP 04/093 | Internal |
| IgA isotype – RHD ELISA | RHDV/RHDV2 IgA Antibodies | MP 04/134 MP 04/134A |
Accredited – OIE Manual for Terrestrial Animals cap. 2.6.2 par. B.2.3 |
| IgG isotype – RHD ELISA | RHDV/RHDV2 IgG Antibodies | ||
| IgM isotype – RHD ELISA | RHDV/RHDV2 IgM Antibodies |
2 Specific anti-RHDV, anti RHDV2 and anti-EBHSV MAbs were produced and characterized before their use in competitive ELISA