Veterinary Laboratories Agency

Veterinary Laboratories Agency

The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) is an executive agency of the UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ("Defra"). It carries out animal disease surveillance, diagnostic services and veterinary scientific research for government and commercial organisations. It is based in New Haw, though has offices and laboratories around the country, such as in Sutton Bonington.

It is both an International Reference Laboratory and the EU Community Reference Laboratory for avian influenza.

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History

1894 - The Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL) is established in a small basement room in Whitehall, London to deal with a swine fever epidemic.
1917 - The Laboratory moves to its current location in Weybridge. The site is still known as Weybridge today, although the postal address is now Addlestone.[1]

Recent development

On June 29th 2010 DEFRA announced that the VLA would be merged with Animal Health[2].

References

External links