You need DA Form 7539, and this page gets you to the file and through it. Start with what the form is: REQUEST FOR VETERINARY LABORATORY TESTING & FOOD SAMPLE RECORD, used to request for veterinary laboratory testing & food sample record. Check next that you have the right version — the edition dated 07/01/2026 is the one published here, and its status is ACTIVE. Then look at the size before you begin, because 2 page(s) and roughly 200 fields tell you how long this will take. Before you go further, note that a newer edition exists. Use this one only if you are looking at a record already completed on it.
Then work out your role. If the entries describe you, you fill them in and someone in the administrative section checks the result. If you handle records for others, you enter what they supply and pass the form along. In both cases the same two references govern you: TSG maintains the form, and AR 40-657 sets out the trigger for using it and the route it takes. Read that directive before you start when anything about your case is unusual.
Begin with the first block and follow the printed order. You will enter your name first, exactly as your official records show it, followed by your identification number, your organisation, and the date of preparation. Resist the urge to jump to the substantive blocks and return to the header later. Those first entries are the index for the whole record, and an error there costs you the ability to retrieve it.
Once you reach the body of the form, move between fields with the tab key rather than the mouse; it follows the order the form was built in and you are less likely to skip a box. Click check boxes and option buttons directly. When you meet a group of options where only one can apply, notice that selecting a second one clears the first — that is intended, not a fault. Watch your longer answers as you type them. A single-line field does not wrap, so text that runs past the edge stays visible on screen and then prints cut off. When you see that happening, stop and move the text to the remarks area or a continuation instead of squeezing it in. If a field does not apply to you, mark it rather than leaving it empty; a blank space tells the reviewer nothing about whether you considered the question or missed it.
Sign at the end and not before. Use ink or the electronic method your office accepts; whatever the state of the entries, an unsigned form is still a draft. When a reviewer, approver or witness has to sign as well, collect those signatures in printed block order and make sure each one is dated the day it was applied, not the day you started. Then read the form through once from the beginning. Three faults account for most rejections: a required field left blank, an identification number with two digits swapped, and a date whose day and month are reversed. Add a fourth if you began from an old working copy — data left over from the last time will travel forward untouched.
At some point while filling the form you will meet a Privacy Act statement, and you should read it when you reach it rather than after you finish. It tells you who is authorised to collect the information, what it will be used for, who else may see it, and whether you are obliged to answer or may decline. Once you have entered your details, treat the file accordingly: it now holds personal information about you, so store it and send it the way your office handles such records.
Download the form
Then choose a file to download. What you will see offered is PDF, XFDL, and the only question you need to answer is whether you are typing or writing. Type, and you want the fillable pdf, where the entry areas respond to your keyboard. Write, and you want the printable pdf, which you print empty and complete with a pen. The layout does not change between them, so pick whichever fits how you plan to work today.
Then take care with how you open what you downloaded. Your browser will happily display a pdf, and for reading that is enough — but for typing it is not, because some in-browser viewers accept keystrokes and then throw them away when the tab closes. Put the file somewhere on disk, open it in a proper reader, type into one field and save, and confirm the text is still there when you reopen. If you picked up the xfdl copy, get the IBM Lotus Forms Viewer before you go any further, because nothing else will open the file.
One last point before you move on: every format is free. No registration stands between you and the file, and what you download is the published form, unaltered.
What the form asks for
- AUDIT_A
- AUDIT_B
- AUDIT_C
- AUDIT_D
- BRAND_A
- BRAND_B
- BRAND_C
- BRAND_D
- BRAND_E
- BRAND_F
- CHEMISTRY
- CODE_A
- CODE_B
- CODE_C
- CODE_D
- CODE_E
- CODE_F
- COND
- CONTROL
- COST_A
- COST_B
- COST_C
- COST_D
- COST_E
Now send it on. Follow the routing in the prescribing directive, which will point you to a named office, to your unit administrative channel, or to your own file. Take a copy before you release it. From there the record follows the retention schedule for the series, and neither you nor the receiving clerk shortens or extends that on local judgement.
Should the package need more than one document, search by series and number. Within the DA series, forms under the same proponent or the same prescribing directive tend to be required as a set, and a form referenced on the page you are filling usually accompanies it. Collect the continuations, covers and transmittals up front so the submission goes complete the first time.
Check the edition date again the next time you reach for this form. Editions change when the proponent revises the content, and a copy you saved months ago may no longer be current — compare the date printed on your file against the edition in force before you type anything into it. What you do not need to do is redo work already finished: a form you completed and submitted under an earlier edition stays as it is.
One last thing to be clear about before you download. What you get here is a copy of a published Department of the Army document. This site is not part of the Department of the Army, issues no forms of its own, and cannot tell you that any office will accept what you submit. Nothing written on this page is legal advice. When you are unsure about a particular entry, a requirement or whether you are eligible at all, ask TSG or the administrative office that services your unit — they answer those questions and we do not.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 7539?
- REQUEST FOR VETERINARY LABORATORY TESTING & FOOD SAMPLE RECORD
- Which edition is current?
- 07/01/2026
- Who is responsible for this form?
- TSG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF