Key takeaways
- A LIMS records samples, tests, results, stock and equipment, so that every result can be traced to its sample, method, instrument and analyst.
- A veterinary laboratory handles many species, sample types and herd submissions, and reports notifiable diseases to the veterinary authority. A general LIMS is not designed for that.
- WOAH says ISO/IEC 17025 or an equivalent is essential for laboratories seeking formal recognition of their testing competency and for all WOAH Reference Laboratories.
- Check analyser interfaces, verification by a second person, quality control that can stop a run, and how results reach the veterinarian and the surveillance team.
What is a veterinary LIMS?
A laboratory information management system (LIMS) is software that records a laboratory’s samples, tests, results, stock and equipment. A veterinary LIMS does this for animal health laboratories, where the work differs from a human clinical or an industrial laboratory in several ways.
| Area | Human clinical or industrial LIMS | Veterinary LIMS |
|---|---|---|
| Subject of the test | One patient or one product batch | An animal, a herd or flock, and its holding |
| Species and reference ranges | One species | Many species, each with its own ranges |
| Sample types | A narrow set | Blood, serum, milk, swabs, tissue, faeces and whole carcasses |
| Sections | Often one discipline | Serology, molecular biology, bacteriology, parasitology, clinical pathology and pathology |
| Who gets the result | The requester | The veterinarian, the owner and, for notifiable diseases, the veterinary authority |
What WOAH and ISO/IEC 17025 expect
WOAH’s Terrestrial Manual has a chapter on quality management in veterinary testing laboratories (Chapter 1.1.5, 2024 edition). It says that for laboratories seeking formal recognition of testing competency, and for all WOAH Reference Laboratories, the use of ISO/IEC 17025 or an equivalent is essential.
The chapter sets out what a quality management system should address. Several of the items depend directly on the information system:
- Good documentation practices. The chapter gives the ALCOA+ principles as an example: records that are attributable, legible, contemporaneous, original, accurate, complete, consistent, enduring and available.
- Documented test methods and reporting procedures, with evidence of the competence of the people who perform tests and authorise results.
- Quality control procedures that monitor the validity of tests.
- Validation of test methods, and an estimate of measurement uncertainty for quantitative tests.
A LIMS does not make a laboratory accredited. An accreditation body does that after an assessment. The LIMS keeps the records the assessor asks for, and makes it hard to release a result without them.
What to require from a veterinary LIMS
- Sample reception with barcodes, sample condition, storage location and chain of custody.
- A test catalogue by section, with methods and their versions, reference ranges by species and target times.
- Interfaces to analysers, so results are imported and not retyped.
- Verification by a second person before any result is released, with an audit history of every change.
- Quality control charts and rules that can put an instrument on hold.
- Equipment calibration and maintenance, reagent lots and expiry dates, and inventory.
- Reports in Arabic and English, sent to the requester automatically.
- A link to the veterinary record and to disease surveillance, so that a positive notifiable result opens a case.
The laboratory and the rest of animal health
A veterinary laboratory rarely works alone. Samples come from clinics, field teams, border posts and private veterinarians, and results feed treatment decisions, movement controls and reports to WOAH. If the LIMS is separate from the veterinary record, results are retyped and a notifiable result waits for someone to notice it.
WOAH expects an immediate notification within 24 hours of confirming an exceptional disease event. The time between a verified result in the laboratory and an open case with the epidemiology team is part of that clock.
Questions to ask a supplier
- Which of our analysers have you interfaced, and how is each interface tested?
- Can you show a herd submission with twenty animals and three sample types?
- How does a second person verify a result, and what does the audit history show?
- What happens when a control fails in the middle of a run?
- How do results reach the veterinarian, the owner and the surveillance team?
- Where is the data stored, and how is the system licensed?
Questions and answers
What is a veterinary LIMS?
It is a laboratory information management system built for animal health laboratories: many species and sample types, herd and flock submissions, sections from serology to pathology, and reporting of notifiable diseases to the veterinary authority.
What is the difference between a LIMS and a LIS?
The terms overlap. A laboratory information system (LIS) usually means a system for human clinical laboratories, organised around patients. A LIMS is usually organised around samples and batches, as in veterinary, food, environmental and industrial laboratories.
Does a LIMS give a laboratory ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation?
No. Accreditation is granted by an accreditation body after an assessment. A LIMS keeps the records the standard asks for, such as methods, quality control, calibration, competence and the audit trail.
How does a veterinary LIMS connect to analysers?
Most analysers send results over the common laboratory interface standards, ASTM and HL7, or export result files. Each analyser model has to be interfaced and tested with the laboratory’s own tests.
Sources
- WOAH: Terrestrial Manual, Chapter 1.1.5, Quality management in veterinary testing laboratories (2024)
- WOAH Asia and the Pacific: Disease reporting (what to report, when and where)
Birbal AI is an independent company based in Abu Dhabi. Facts about third parties come from the sources above; check them for the latest position.