ICAR advises that the EU Joint Research Centre has launched the new certified (primary) reference material for somatic cell counting. The material is now listed in their on-line catalogue and it is available for purchase here
The two materials comes with their certificates of origin and certificates of analysis. Also the full certification report is available through the above link.
The reference material can be used as:
- calibration material for routine method users;
- quality control material for both reference method users and alternative method users;
- tool to assign values to in-house/secondary reference materials.
A guiding document on these material is available as welll as information on other applications that are under preparation.
The above material is planned to serve as an anchor material for global equivalence in somatic cell counting. This may in certain geographies implicate some shift in counting levels as compared to working with their current anchoring system. It is intended through the joint IDF/ICAR Action Team to come up with guidance on best practices on how to handle such a situation.
For now, ICAR invites you to examine the material and share your experiences. This will be most helpful for us to get to optimal guidance.
Please if you have any comment and question do not hesitate in contacting Mrs Silvia Orlandini (silvia@icar.org)
