UPDATE 11Apr25:

We continue to work on the major upgrade to one of the key items of equipment that are needed to safely operate our rabies serology unit. The main work has been completed successfully and we now expect that the 2 outstanding tasks remaining before we can safely go live again will be completed at the end of next week. Unfortunately at the moment it is not possible to guarantee this however we expect testing to start again week commencing 21^st April 2025.

As such please now send all samples to our main Biobest office here in the UK so we can safely prepare them for testing as soon as our laboratory re-opens. Our agent in the USA is no longer available to receive shipments although any samples currently in transit will be processed.

We appreciate your continued patience and understanding and look forward to being able to test samples again in the very near future.

We wish to inform our customers of an upcoming temporary shutdown of our rabies testing facility. The laboratory, a state-of-the-art high-containment facility, requires significant upgrades to its effluent treatment plant in order to maintain the highest safety standards. Due to the critical nature of this equipment, we must close the facility for the duration of these works.

To minimise any disruption, we have scheduled this closure over the festive period, the quietest time of year for testing. The laboratory will formally shut down on November 29th, with work commencing on December 2nd. The last tests prior to shutdown will be set up on November 27th. We will make every effort to complete all samples received on or before this date.

This major upgrade is expected to take up to 15 weeks. To expedite the process, our engineering team will be working extended hours, including weekends. We are also exploring options to operate with limited capacity during the upgrade period, but please be aware that rabies testing may not be possible for the full duration.

We will provide ongoing updates through our website, social media channels, and email. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our dedicated rabies team at 0131 440 2628 or via email.

We are pleased to announce that arrangements have been made which will allow us to offer a limited rabies testing service during the upcoming maintenance shutdown of our laboratory. We are in the process of  finalising the logistics for this and will confirm details shortly.

Please note that turnaround times are expected to be longer than usual during this period. However, we remain committed to minimising any inconvenience to our customers. Unfortunately, our rabies express service will not be available during the shutdown, meaning that all samples will be tested in the order they are received.

This service will only be available to our UK and EU based customers. For customers outside these regions, we are actively exploring alternative options and again will share updates as soon as possible.

We appreciate the major inconvenience that these essential upgrade works will cause our customers and we appreciate your patience while we have been arranging alternatives.

Please keep an eye on our website and social media channels for further updates.

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**Update**

Our routine maintenance is nearing completion. Unfortunately some of the maintenance overran which has delayed us slightly. We now hope to resume testing on the 19th of September and will begin working through the backlog of samples. Please contact our office team if you would like to use our rabies express testing to prioritise your samples.

Our rabies laboratory will be closed to allow routine annual maintenance from Friday the 18^th of August. This is our main maintenance shutdown and we expect the laboratory to return to operational status on Friday 15^th September.

Unfortunately, in the run up to this shutdown we have experienced a significant issue with a safety critical piece of plant in our high containment facility. This has prevented us from accessing the unit over the past 10 days and has caused a significant testing backlog. We are pleased to report that our specialist engineering team have worked tirelessly to fix the issue and we are currently setting up tests to clear the backlog of samples prior to our shutdown. The last opportunity for us to set up tests is th 16th of August and we will ensure that as many samples as possible are included on these tests. Any samples not tested will be prioritised when we resume testing on the 15^th of September.

We would like to apologise to any customers who have experienced delays due to these recent issues, unfortunately these were due to factors beyond our control. The FAVN test uses infectious rabies virus and as such this work requires the highest levels of containment. Our highly specialist facility is very complex and the containment requirements make it very difficult and time-consuming to perform even the most basic repairs. Naturally containment of virus and safety have to remain our top priority.

Our dedicated admin team remain available to answers any questions you may have and any further updates will be posted on our website and social media channels.

**UPDATE 03Mar23**

We are pleased to report that our maintenance will be completed earlier than expected and we now intend to resume rabies testing on the 10th of March. As usual the backlog of samples will be tested in order of receipt but our express service will be available for any urgent samples.

We will shortly be shutting down our high containment rabies testing laboratory temporarily in order to complete routine maintenance. This shutdown is required to enable our engineers to gain access to the laboratory for routine servicing of equipment and facilities. This ensures that the laboratory and equipment are maintained to the highest standard. All other areas of our business will operate as normal during this period.

The work will start in February 23, with a timetable as follows:

• 22 Feb 23 (Wed) Last tests will be set up
• 24 Feb 23 (Fri) Tests from 22 Feb 23 will be read and reported.
• Week commencing 20 Mar 23 Normal testing resumes (Exact date subject to engineer service sign off).

This means that for a period of approximately 17 working days, no rabies testing will be available.

We will naturally use our best endeavours to ensure the works are completed as quickly as possible to minimise the downtime and service disruptions to our customers. During the shutdown we will post updates on our social media channels to confirm exact re-start dates.

As with previous shutdowns we will clear the testing backlog as quickly as possible to enable your results to get back to you within our usual normal published timescales. Once the facility returns to normal operations our express service will be available for any urgent samples, all other samples will be processed in order of receipt.

Express Testing will not be available during the shutdown as the unit is closed and no tests can be set up.

If you are aware of any clients that may require certificates before 24 Feb 23 we would encourage you to send in samples as soon as possible in order to avoid any disappointment. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information regarding the shutdown.