The National Reference Laboratory , part of the RIVM, receives the M. tuberculosis complex strains and performs drug susceptibility testing, strain identification and genotyping.

In 2009, the variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) typing replaced the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) typing method, which was in place since 1993.

In 2016, a research project started to study the use of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) in TB Control. Since mid-2018, the WGS results are communicated to the TB Control Departments and will replace the VNTR typing in 2019.