The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) was an

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or No ...

of the

UK government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for environmental quality, environmenta ...

(DEFRA). It carried out animal disease surveillance, diagnostic services and

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both ...

scientific research for government and commercial organisations. It was based in

New Haw New Haw is a village which is part of the Runnymede (borough), Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England. It is located approximately south of Addlestone and boxing the compass, southwest by west of London. Geography New Haw borders Byfleet, Ad ...

, though had offices and laboratories around the country, such as in Sutton Bonington. It was both an International Reference Laboratory and the

EU Community Reference Laboratory The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

for

avian influenza Avian influenza, also known as avian flu or bird flu, is a disease caused by the influenza A virus, which primarily affects birds but can sometimes affect mammals including humans. Wild aquatic birds are the primary host of the influenza A viru ...

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.

Merger with Animal Health

On 29 June 2010 DEFRA announced that the VLA would be merged with Animal Health. The merger was completed on 1 April 2011, forming the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency.

References

External links

Veterinary Laboratories Agency

Agricultural organisations based in the United Kingdom Defunct executive agencies of the United Kingdom government Organisations based in Surrey Government agencies established in 1995 Government agencies disestablished in 2010 Science and technology in the United Kingdom Veterinary medicine in the United Kingdom {{science-org-stub