How to improve the efficiency of veterinary laboratories

Veterinary laboratories around the globe are currently facing a number of important challenges. These challenges include an ageing workforce, lack of trained veterinary specialists, increased stringency for test validation, increasing emphasis on quality management, safety standards and certified accreditation processes, increasing regulation and audit processes and high costs of replacement infrastructure. Importantly, increased collaboration and linkages are high on the agenda in most countries to enhance efficiency within the sector. In Australia, mechanisms are in place to deal with some of these issues, and it is likely similar mechanisms are being used in other countries. The issues and some possible solutions are discussed.