We guarantee quality.
Quality control plays a key role in vaccine egg production. This is because the SPF status of the herds must be checked and renewed every week. At the same time, in-process controls and product quality monitoring are weekly tasks that are carried out by the responsible laboratories.
Quality control has the following essential tasks in the area of vaccine egg production:
Tasks in the area of SPF egg production:
Serological and microbiological testing to monitor SPF status. These conform to Chapter 5.2.2. of the European Pharmacopoeia and United States Department of Agriculture Veterinary Services Memorandum 800.65.
Tasks in the field of clean egg production:
Serological and microbiological tests for monitoring of vaccinated animal stocks according to customer specifications for use for inactivated human vaccines or according to chapter 5.2.13. of the European Pharmacopoeia for use for inactivated animal vaccines.
Microbiological testing
Microbiological testing to monitor the hygiene status of farms, personnel, feed and the laboratory itself (in-process control).
Microbiological testing to monitor product quality (such as bio burden (bacterial load) on eggs).
VALO BioMedia Quality Control Laboratories (QC Laboratories)
In the area of SPF egg production, we maintain our own QC laboratories in the U.S. (for U.S. flocks) and in Germany (for flocks in Germany, France, and Spain) to monitor the SPF status of our livestock.
These laboratories specialize in proving on a weekly basis that the animals are free of the pathogens listed in the Pharmacopoeia for each SPF flock in production, based on the testing methods specified by the authorities.
The test methods include the following
ELISA tests
Agar gel precipitation tests (AGP)
Agglutination tests (AGG)
Virus neutralization tests (VN)
Haemagglutination inhibition tests (HI)
Immunofluorescence test (IF)
The laboratories also perform microbiological tests for in-process controls and product quality monitoring.
Cooperation with partner laboratories
We collaborate with specialized external partner laboratories in the area of PCR testing for monitoring SPF status, both in Germany and in the USA. The same applies to the overall monitoring of our SPF production in Brazil. These external partners are initially qualified by us and then regularly audited.
The livestock for clean egg production is also monitored with the support of external partner laboratories and contracted veterinarians.
The veterinarians there are responsible for the regular clinical assessment of the livestock and also carry out serological and bacteriological tests in their own laboratories. These are necessary both to monitor the vaccination status of the animals and to detect the absence of certain pathogens (for example, salmonella, mycoplasma, avian influenza).