Tools for evaluating Veterinary Services: an external auditing model for the quality assurance process

The author describes the reasons why evaluation processes should be applied to the Veterinary Services of Member Countries, either for trade in animals and animal products and by-products between two countries, or for establishing essential measures to improve the Veterinary Service concerned. The author also describes the basic elements involved in conducting an evaluation process, including the instruments for doing so. These basic elements centre on the following: designing a model, or desirable image, against which a comparison can be made establishing a list of processes to be analysed and defining the qualitative and quantitative mechanisms for this analysis establishing a multidisciplinary evaluation team and developing a process for standardising the evaluation criteria.