Minutes of the

Laboratory Advisory Committee Meeting

 

The fifth meeting of the Laboratory Advisory Committee was held in conjunction with the NALMA Workshop at the Crowne Plaza in Madison, WI.

 

Jere High chaired the meeting and at least 42 persons attended as participants or observers.  An attendance list is included with these Minutes.

 

Michael Rector reviewed the Canadian DHI presentation at the FSAC pertaining to robotic milking systems, stating that the field service providers had approved a recommendation that samples be analyzed individually and combined mathematically with their corresponding milk weights to provide a weighted average.

 

Paul Sauve reviewed concerns noted during on-site laboratory audits including:

 

1. Inadequate documentation for tracing sample results through the laboratory,

 

2. Incomplete training procedures for lab technicians,

 

3. Overly complicated forms for recording calibration checks,

 

4. Failure to address issues noted during previous on-site audits, and

 

5. Inadequate or inconsistent documentation of instrument maintenance.

 

Paul noted that templates for equipment maintenance logs, pre-calibration check records, calibration checks and adjustments, and daily instrument logs should provide adequate documentation.

 

Paul stated that he would be requiring more complete maintenance records and better resolution of deficiencies from previous audits before recommending future certification renewals and in some cases, may require follow-up from recent audits before recommending certification renewal.

 

Paul reviewed the Sample Unknowns analysis and noted the following concerns:

 

1.     There are about three data entry errors reported per month as the result of using the website calculator to determine the 12-sample total,

 

2.     Unknowns samples are not being handled using routine laboratory procedures and are therefore, not representative of normal herd samples,

 

3.     Problem samples are not being reported and therefore, are not identifiable to the auditor, and

 

4.     There are 10-12 laboratories calling each month to verify their In / Out status.

 

The Committee approved a recommendation to have Paul Sauve, Michael Rector, and Jere High draft a revision pertaining to the Auditing of Calibration Check and Maintenance Documentation section of the CDCB laboratory manual that would clarify the documentation and response time requirements and email it to the LAC members for comments.

 

Paul presented and reviewed a series of spreadsheet templates developed in conjunction with NALMA and California DHIA designed to help laboratories meet the QC requirements and recommended that laboratories begin using them routinely.

 

The Committee re-elected Jere High to a two-year term as LAC Chairman.

 

Paul reviewed the issue of MUN tolerances and presented a recommendation to establish multiple levels of certification based on accuracy.  The Committee tabled the recommendation until later in the meeting.

 

During the NALMA portion of the meeting, the following topics were presented:

 

1.     Jennifer Garrett spoke regarding communication, dealing with changes, and motivation,

 

2.     Representatives from Bentley, Delta Instruments, and Foss provided reports from laboratory equipment manufacturers,

 

3.     Representatives from various laboratories and suppliers reviewed laboratory analysis options for Johne’s, forage, and Mycoplasm testing.

 

Jere High led a discussion regarding the consolidation of the NALMA, LAC, NADMA, and FSAC meetings with the National DHIA Annual Meeting in March.  The consensus of the Committee was to pursue this course of action for a 2004 meeting in Anaheim, CA with the laboratory meetings on Wednesday, the field service meetings on Thursday, tours on Friday, and the NDHIA meetings on Saturday.

 

John Rhoads shared the results of a Sample Unknowns shipping trial held in 2002 and noted that laboratories have choice of shippers.

 

John also reviewed the Sample Unknowns results for 2002-2003 and confirmed that overall, laboratory results have been very close to reference sample results.  The Committee suggested that John submit his findings to magazines for publication.

 

The issue of MUN certification was re-visited and the Committee acknowledged that this was not a CDCB issue and therefore, no recommendation was made to include it in the CDCB manuals.  The consensus of the Committee was to have National DHIA list D-value archs at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 on the MUN summary graph to provide better comparison markers.

 

Jere High reported that NALMA will begin working on a laboratory handbook in the near future.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Michael Rector

QCS

 

Attendance List

Laboratory Advisory Committee Meeting

 

AgSource Cooperative / CRI....................... Eric Helms, Joel Amdall, Tom DeMuth

 

Arizona DHIA....................................... Kim Layne, Neil Hoffman

 

California DHIA..................................... Bill VerBoort

 

Canadian Lab Services............................... Paul Sauve, Carol Campbell

 

Central Valley Dairy Lab........................... Harry Thompson

 

Colorado DHIA...................................... John Kennedy

 

Dairy Lab Services................................... Dawn Funk

 

Dairy One............................................. Dixie Burris

 

DHI-Provo............................................ Ken Crandall

 

Eastern Wisconsin DHIA........................... Glenn Schmahl, Dona Winter, Jamie Meyer

 

Foss North America................................. Jeff Boedigheimer

 

Fox Valley DHIA.................................... Carol Decker, Joe Drexler

 

Great Lakes DHIA................................... John Mikel

 

Heart of America DHIA............................ Erin Ferdinand

 

Holstein USA......................................... Dan Meihak

 

Lancaster DHIA...................................... Jere High, Jay Mylin

 

Mid-South Dairy Records.......................... Mark Witherspoon

 

Minnesota DHIA.................................... Bruce Dokkebakken

 

Minnesota DHIA – Zumbrota Lab................ Muril Niebuhr

 

National DHIA....................................... Diane Ross, Greg Marrs, Dave Selner

 

Quality Certification Services...................... Michael Rector, David Youngman

 

Quebec DHIA........................................ Brian Corrigan

 

Rainbow Test......................................... Per Jensen

 

Rocky Mountain DHIA............................ Brent Clark, Kim Hatch, Teresa Maughan

 

Southern Counties DHIA........................... Rick Bealer

 

Texas DHIA.......................................... Debie Van Alstyne

 

Universal Lab Services.............................. Paul Proffitt

 

Vermont DHIA....................................... Mildred Nault

 

Washington DHIA................................... Tim Thomas