Envigo announced today that it has been granted full accreditation for its Horst, Netherlands site from the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International Council. AAALAC informed Envigo that that the criteria for achieving full accreditationhad been assured and congratulated the company for its "efforts to achieve a quality animal care and use program." Whilst the Horst facility has been ISO certified for many years, this is the first time it has received AAALAC accreditation.
The 9,600m Horst site is one of Envigo's largest research models and services facilities in Europe. It consists of 5 barrier units and a transport hub for distributing Envigo research models and Teklad laboratory animal diets to over 700 customers across Europe and Asia. The Horst facility offers back-up colonies for all major Envigo stocks and strains in order to safeguard the consistent supply of high quality research models. As with all Envigo rodent barriers, those in Horst are microbiologically monitored on a monthly basis which exceeds the FELASA 2014 recommendations.
Adrian Hardy, Chief Operating Officer of Envigo commented: "The AAALAC accreditation of our Horst site is great news and demonstrates the high standards we set for animal welfare. Since our acquisition of the research models business nearly two years ago we've put in place an investment plan to make renovations and improvements across our global sites. A key element of this plan is to earn AAALAC accreditation for all our European sites, and a program to achieve this is ongoing."
In parallel with its efforts to achieve AAALAC accreditation at its Horst site, Envigo has also recently completed the renovation of two major barrier units which source several stocks and strains of mice, rats and guinea pigs. This renovation includes significant improvements in building maintenance and biosafety at Horst, as well as ensuring compliance with the new EU/2010/63 guidelines on cage densities. The newly-renovated barriers were enthusiastically received by customers who recently attended their opening. Further renovations are planned for two more Horst barriers with scheduled completion dates in the coming months.
