Veterinary laboratories are at the core of national animal diseases control and prevention systems. Indeed, the laboratory is the starting point for disease investigations by providing the first element of decision making, which is the diagnosis of evidence when cases are suspected in the field. As such, the quality of disease management (treatment, vaccination, or prophylaxis) depends on the results provided by the laboratory.

Mindful of this challenge, FAO and AU-IBAR have been supporting veterinary laboratories in the ECOWAS region within RESOLAB for many years. This support has led to the eradication of rinderpest.

With the operationalisation of RAHC in 2018, the coordination of actions and support to RESOLAB is entirely dedicated to it. It is within the framework of this coordination that the issue of laboratories was widely discussed during the 8th RAHN. It is all about finding solutions to the transportation of samples, pre- and post-vaccination seromonitoring, biosafety and biosecurity, quality assurance, inter-lab testing and antimicrobial resistance, in relation to priority animal diseases such as PPR, CBPP, Rabies and Foot-and-Mouth Disease.

For the 2022/2023 campaign for example, recommendations to ECOWAS and its partners include(i) facilitating the acquisition of reagents and consumables (ii) training staff and upgrading and calibrating equipment, (iii) facilitating the training of laboratory staff for accreditation, (iv) creating an emergency stock of equipment, reagents and consumables for crisis situations, (v) making the network more dynamic and creating sub-networks per disease, and (vi) including a mentoring programme among laboratories.

In the long run and as part of the "One Health Approach”, the planning of support and the harmonisation of methods should be done in collaboration with the other key sectors (human and environmental health). These harmonisation efforts have already started with WAHO in the framework of the REDISSE and PROALAB projects which directly assist the two supporting laboratories of Nigeria (NVRI) and Senegal (LNERV).