It carried out animal disease surveillance, diagnostic services and veterinary scientific research for government and commercial organisations.
It was based in New Haw, though had offices and laboratories around the country, such as in Sutton Bonington.
1894 – The Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL) is established in a small basement room in Whitehall, London to deal with a swine fever epidemic.
[1] On 29 June 2010 DEFRA announced that the VLA would be merged with Animal Health.
[2] The merger was completed on 1 April 2011, forming the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency.