The Generative Brain

Laboratorio Central de Veterinaria, Algete (Spanish central veterinary laboratory, TSE confirmation)

The Laboratorio Central de Veterinaria (LCV) is the Spanish agriculture ministry's own central animal health laboratory, at Carretera M-106 km 1.4 in Algete, north-east of Madrid. It sits under the ministry's Direccion General de Sanidad de la Produccion Agroalimentaria y Bienestar Animal, with its laboratory functions handled by the Subdireccion General de Laboratorios de Sanidad Animal y Vegetal. For prion disease in animals it has been part of the official chain since the national TSE programme began: Real Decreto 3454/2000 made it the reference laboratory for rapid post-mortem BSE tests and the place where authorised regional laboratories must send doubtful or positive rapid test samples, while confirmation was given to the University of Zaragoza veterinary pathology department. Since 2004 it has also been the reference laboratory for PRNP genotyping in the national scrapie programme. From 1 October 2026 the position changed. Real Decreto 682/2026 rewrote the TSE decree so that the national reference laboratories are whatever a separate ministerial order says, and that order, Orden PJC/1015/2026, designates Algete for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and for PRNP analysis in the sheep genetic resistance programme, and names no Zaragoza laboratory. In the BOE texts read, Algete is now the single national reference point for animal TSE confirmation in Spain. The laboratory deals with animal disease only; it has no role in human CJD diagnosis. Information only, not medical or veterinary advice.

Key facts

  • Real Decreto 3454/2000, in its original 23 December 2000 text, made the Algete laboratory the national reference laboratory for rapid post-mortem BSE tests, and gave the Zaragoza veterinary faculty pathology department the national reference role for confirming positive or doubtful TSE cases from regional laboratories and from Algete.
  • Article 4 of the same decree, still in its original wording in the consolidated text updated 30 September 2026, has each autonomous community designate the laboratories that run TSE analysis including rapid post-mortem tests, and requires those authorised laboratories to send doubtful or positive rapid test samples to the Laboratorio Central de Veterinaria at Algete.
  • From 1 October 2026 article 3.1 of that decree no longer names any laboratory; it refers to the ministerial order designating national reference laboratories, and article 3.2 lists the reference functions, including coordinating diagnostic methods with the authorised laboratories and confirming their positive or doubtful cases. The current text does not mention Zaragoza.
  • Orden PJC/1015/2026, published in BOE no. 241 on 30 September 2026 and effective 1 October 2026, lists the Laboratorio Central de Veterinaria (Algete) under heading II and designates it, among more than 60 items, for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (II.C.1) and for PRNP gene analysis within the national genetic selection programme for TSE resistance in sheep (II.M.1). The order has no transitional or repeal clause and no University of Zaragoza entry.
  • Orden APA/268/2023 designated the laboratory as national reference centre for animal genetics from March 2023, with coordination, confirmation and sample bank functions, and its preamble records that the laboratory has been the reference laboratory for PRNP genotyping in the national scrapie programme since 2004.
  • Orden APA/1016/2026, effective 1 October 2026, adds to that 2023 order that the animal genetics centre also exercises national reference laboratory functions under the new designation order.
  • Real Decreto 148/2023 designated the laboratory national reference laboratory for 13 notifiable diseases such as foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, African swine fever and bluetongue, with no TSE item; that decree was repealed with effect from 1 October 2026 by Real Decreto 682/2026, whose single order now carries all the designations.
  • The laboratory is attached to the agriculture ministry's directorate for primary production health and animal welfare, which also coordinates reference laboratories and cooperation with EU reference laboratories.
  • Ministry pages, seen only as search excerpts, describe the laboratory as holding national reference roles since 1986, EU reference laboratory for African horse sickness since 1992 and for bluetongue since 2019, and say the TSE confirmation role sits with its genetics and control laboratory, which also supplies the sheep genotyping data for the 2025 national TSE report.

Timeline

  1. 1986National reference roles begin after Spain joins the European Community (ministry excerpt).
  2. 1992Designated EU reference laboratory for African horse sickness (ministry excerpt).
  3. 2000Real Decreto 3454/2000 makes Algete the reference laboratory for rapid post-mortem BSE tests and the destination for doubtful or positive rapid test samples.
  4. 2004Becomes the reference laboratory for PRNP genotyping in the national scrapie programme.
  5. 2019Designated EU reference laboratory for bluetongue (ministry excerpt).
  6. 2023Real Decreto 148/2023 in force, naming the laboratory national reference laboratory for 13 notifiable diseases.
  7. 2023Orden APA/268/2023 in force, national reference centre for animal genetics.
  8. 2026BOE publishes Real Decreto 682/2026, Orden PJC/1015/2026 and Orden APA/1016/2026.
  9. 2026New designation order in force: Algete named for TSEs and for PRNP analysis in the sheep resistance programme; Real Decreto 148/2023 repealed.
Sources for this page