National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN)

The NAHLN is a cooperative effort between two USDA agencies—the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA; formerly CSREES)—and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (www.aavld.org). It is a multifaceted network comprised of sets of laboratories that focus on different diseases, using common testing methods and data standards to process diagnostic requests and share information. To standardize test result data from member labs the NAHLN uses an HL7 messaging protocol. LOINC codes are used to identify test results and individual test orders. Local extension LOINCs are used for NAHLN-specific protocol orders.