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This report provides an analysis of the external quality assessment (EQA) performance with antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of laboratories participating in the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network in 2018. A total of 860 laboratories (1 – 114 per country) from 30 EU/EEA countries participated in the EQA exercise. Six bacterial strains were used: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecium and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

External quality assessment (EQA) is an essential part of any laboratory-based surveillance system, allowing for the monitoring of performance and comparability of results from participating laboratories, identification of potential issues, and deployment of resources and training where necessary.

This report presents the results of the sixth round of the external quality assessment (EQA-6) scheme for Listeria monocytogenes  (L. monocytogenes) typing organised for laboratories providing data to the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Network (FWD-Net) managed by ECDC.

This report presents the results of the third round of the EQA on AST for national public health laboratories for Campylobacter (Campylobacter EQA3-AST) within the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Network (FWD-Net).

This report presents the results of the eighth round of the external quality assessment (EQA-8) scheme for typing of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) organised for laboratories providing data to the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Network (FWD-Net) managed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Influenza epidemics occur every winter with high impact on disease burden, hospitalisations and excess mortality in countries in the WHO European Region. To understand the characteristics of circulating influenza viruses during seasonal epidemics, virological influenza surveillance is performed and detected viruses are further characterised at national influenza centres (NICs) that are part of the wider network of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS). External quality assessments (EQAs) are important instruments in assessing the quality of the generated data that are reported nationally and internationally through The European Surveillance System (TESSy).

This report presents the results of the second European Pertussis Laboratory Surveillance Network (EUPert-LabNet) EQA scheme for Bordetella pertussis PCR funded by ECDC on behalf of EUPert-LabNet. The EQA study was conducted between February and March 2018.

This report provides an analysis of the external quality assessment (EQA) performance of laboratories participating in the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) in 2017.

This report presents the results of the eighth round of the external quality assessment (EQA-8) scheme for typing of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica organised for public health national reference laboratories (PH NRLs) in ECDC’s Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses network (FWD-Net).

This report presents the results of the fifth round of the external quality assessment (EQA-5) scheme for typing of Listeria monocytogenes organised for laboratories in the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Network (FWD-Net).