EARS-Net EQA

External quality assessment (EQA) for laboratories participating in the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net)

The European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net), formerly known as the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS), provides analyses of trends in antimicrobial susceptibility over time and between all EU Member states and two EEA countries (Iceland and Norway). Data are based on routine antimicrobial susceptibility test results collected from a network of clinical laboratories. At present, the pathogens included in the surveillance network are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp.

EARS-Net is administrated and coordinated by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Since 2000, EARSS/EARS-Net has organised External Quality Assessment (EQA) exercises in antimicrobial susceptibility testing across clinical EARS-Net participating microbiology laboratories in EU/EEA countries.

The EQA exercises provide important information on performance and comparability of the reported test results between participating laboratories and countries.

The objectives of the EARS-Net EQA exercises are:

To assess the quality of the species identification;
To assess the accuracy of qualitative antimicrobial susceptibility test results reported by participating individual laboratories;

To evaluate the overall comparability of routinely collected test results between laboratories and European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries.

Participation in EQA exercises is useful for production of reliable laboratory results of consistently good quality. In the EARS-Net EQA exercises, laboratories are requested to test the bacterial strains by the methods routinely used and the results should then be submitted through a web tool (password-protected) which will generate an evaluation report after validation of the submitted results.

Further, a national summary report will be shared with the National EARS-Net EQA Coordinator. The report will provide a summary of results for their country, including a short conclusion on the capacity of the participating national laboratories, and if applicable, recommendations for improvement.

An EU/EEA summary report (anonymised) will be published on the ECDC website.

Since 2021, the EARS-Net EQA exercises have been organised by ECDC in collaboration with DTU Food.

For further information, please contact Birgitte Helwigh earsnet-eqa@food.dtu.dk

Guideline to reset the password for the EARS-Net EQA webtool

Guideline to reset the password for the EARS-Net EQA webtool

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA

Expected results

Expected results for the 2023 EARS-Net EQA

(PDF document)

For your information

ECDC has decided to include species relevant for the EARS-Net surveillance for species identification. Thus, the six strains may be one of the eight species included in the EARS-Net surveillance or a species not part of the EARS-Net surveillance. In the protocol it is described how to handle the different strains.

2023 EARS-Net EQA webtool guideline

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net protocol

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Acinetobacter baumannii

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Enterococcus faecalis

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Enterococcus faecium

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Escherichia coli

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Klebsiella pneumoniae

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Pseudomonas aeruginosa

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Staphylococcus aureus

(PDF document)

2023 EARS-Net EQA test form Streptococcus pneumoniae

(PDF document)

Documents for 2022 EARS-Net EQA

For your information: ECDC has decided to include species relevant for the EARS-Net surveillance for species identification. Thus, the six strains may be one of the eight species included in the EARS-Net surveillance or a species not part of the EARS-Net surveillance. In the protocol it is described how to handle the different strains.