VERONA, Wis. — Quality Certification Services Inc., a subsidiary of National Dairy Herd Information Association, added the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) Proficiency Program to its myriad of services.
For the past 15 years, Quality Certification Services has provided compliance auditing and certification to all provider segments of the Dairy Herd Information industry, including field services, milk component analysis and dairy records processing.
Reliable
Quality Certification Services and National Dairy Herd Information Association, along with dairy industry and animal health partners, developed the ELISA Proficiency Program to provide dairy producers and allied industry partners with an assurance that ELISA tests conducted on milk samples are highly reliable and repeatable.
Milk samples collected either through routine Dairy Herd Information herd testing or collected specifically for ELISA testing may be used in this program.
The ELISA Proficiency Program offers monthly analysis and reporting of “unknown samples” by participating laboratories. Results will be analyzed for both qualitative and quantitative results.
Initial focus
The program’s initial focus is on the Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) antigen (commonly referred to as Johne’s).
Recognizing future needs, this program may be expanded to include other assays that can detect and analyze the severity of several potential animal health challenges through milk ELISA, such as bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) and leukosis.
The ELISA Proficiency Program is open to any laboratory in North America performing ELISA tests on milk samples. Participants do not need to be affiliated with a Dairy Herd Information organization to capitalize on this new program.
Promote standardization
According to Steven Sievert, Quality Certification Services manager, “The ELISA Proficiency Program strives to promote standardization among labs conducting ELISA tests on milk samples, along with identifying those laboratories that are proficient in milk ELISA testing.”
Participation in this program is voluntary and independent from other certification and proficiency programs offered by Quality Certification Services and/or other entities.
Laboratories that meet all program requirements, including accuracy, reliability and interpretation of assay results, will be listed on the Quality Certification Services Web site as “Certified.”
More information
For more information, contact Sievert at sjsievert@dhia.org; Todd Byrem at byremt@antelbio.com or Jay Mattison at jmattison@dhia.org.
Additional information regarding Quality Certification Services and the services it provides to the dairy records industry may be found at www.quality-certification.com.
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