Mexico achieves membership to the OIE Council for the first time

According to a press release from SAGARPA, the World Assembly of Delegates of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), representing 180 countries, has elected Mexico for a three-year term as a board member of this international body for the very first time.
During its 83rd General Session, the highest governing body of the OIE, the Assembly of Delegates, voted director general of animal health of Mexico's agricultural ministry, SAGARPA, Joaquín Braulio Delgadillo, to serve on the board as delegate of Mexico to the OIE.
Similarly, the 180 delegates of the member countries of the OIE elected the director of the National Center of Diagnostic Services in Animal Health (CENASA) of SENASICA, Juan Antonio Montaño, as a member of the Scientific Commission, which also includes delegates from Italy, Sylvia Bellini and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Baptiste Dungu.
The OIE Council is comprised of the President of the Assembly of Delegates, the Vice President, the outgoing President and six Delegates representing all regions (two for the Americas), elected for a term of three years.
The Assembly of Delegates resolved to grant the presidency of the Council for 2015 to the delegate of South Africa, Botlhe Michael Modisane and vice presidency to the delegate of Australia, Mark Chipp and the outgoing president, Karin Schwabenbauer, delegate of Germany, who remains part the Council for next three years.
The Council also includes the delegate of Mexico, Joaquín Braulio Delgadillo, representing North America, Central America and the Caribbean, and for South America, the delegate of Paraguay, Hugo Benitez Idoyaga.
Council members help ensure the transparency of the world animal health situation, collect, analyze and disseminate relevant scientific information, particularly on methods of disease control and animal welfare, facilitate trade and avoid creating unnecessary trade barriers.
Being part of the OIE Council implies that Mexican health authorities will be involved in the development of standards and policies, as well as the decision-making processes on animal health worldwide. For Mexico, membership to the OIE Board means having the opportunity to support and promote the "One Health" vision that allows to comprehensively address animal health and public health worldwide.
Mexico’s collaboration in the Council will positively affect the international arena and will lead to a new national vision to address health issues from an inclusive perspective and integrate all aspects and players.
Promoting the collaborative approach of "One Health" at national level means providing sustainable and solid support to a coordinated prevention of diseases that impact animal and public health and the human-animal interface.

Analysis: Avian influenza and the role of the OIE

The current spread of avian influenza throughout the U.S. and its impact on trade may have focused attention on the virus and the international trade rules relating to animal diseases, but the virus’ impact on the global poultry market, and the rules governing trade, are not new.
Twenty-four outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza were recorded between 1959 and mid-2003, and all were relatively short-lived. However, the highly pathogenic virus strain that emerged in Korea in December 2003 had, by early 2004, been confirmed in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Its spread continued throughout Southeast Asia and by 2006, the virus had been confirmed in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Hundreds of millions of chickens either died or were culled as a result of the virus, poultry meat production was reduced and trade patterns have shifted. The virus has continued to hit poultry meat production and countries' ability to export or willingness to import.


Role of the OIE
The risk of spreading disease through trade in animals and animal products has long been recognized, and in 1924 the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) was established to fight disease and protect trade at a global level. The 180 member body changed its name to the World Organisation for Animal Health in 2003, but kept its original acronym.
The OIE is an intergovernmental organization responsible for animal health worldwide, and recognized as a reference organization by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
To help facilitate trade without spreading disease, the OIE has a number of objectives.
It aims to ensure transparency in the global disease situation, with its members reporting diseases detected within their territories. This information is then disseminated to allow any preventive actions to be taken.
It collects, analyses and disseminates veterinary scientific information to improve disease control and eradication methods. Guidelines are prepared by its 284 collaborating centers and reference laboratories around the globe.
The OIE also works to encourage international solidarity in the control of animal diseases. It provides technical support to member countries requesting assistance with disease control and eradication operations, including diseases transmissible to humans.
The OIE safeguards world trade by publishing health standards for international trade in animals and animal products. It develops rules that member countries can use to protect themselves from the introduction of diseases and pathogens, without setting up unjustified sanitary barriers. The main normative works produced by the OIE are the Terrestrial Animal Health Code, the Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals, the Aquatic Animal Health Code and the Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals.
OIE standards are prepared by elected specialist commissions and by working groups bring together internationally renowned scientists, most of whom are experts within the network of collaborating centers and reference laboratories.


Standard setting not an easy process
For any international system to work there needs to be agreement between participants during the elaboration of standards and on their application.
The difficulties in achieving this are perhaps illustrated by a recent statement from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
It notes that the U.S. actively participates in helping to draft animal health inspection standards proposed by the OIE, and is a member of the OIE’s Regional Commission for the Americas.
It continues that, generally, if a country has concerns with a particular draft standard and supports those concerns with sound technical information, the pertinent specialist commission will revise that standard accordingly, and present the revised draft for adoption at the OIE’s General Session in May. In the event that a country’s concerns regarding a draft standard are not taken into account, that country may refuse to support the standard when it comes up for adoption at the General Session.
While it is in the interest of the U.S. to support adoption of international standards – and to participate actively and fully in their development – it should be recognized that the U.S. position on a specific draft standard would depend on the acceptability and technical merit of the final draft.


Need for adherence
Even where a standard has been accepted by the OIE and whichever of its member countries find it acceptable, there is no guarantee that the standard will be applied in the event of a disease outbreak that is seen, via trade, as a threat to herds or flocks, and the OIE cannot force its member countries to stick to its rules.
Earlier this month, the International Poultry Council (IPC) wrote to the OIE to encourage its members to abide by guidelines when imposing trade restrictions on poultry and breeding stock in response to avian influenza outbreaks, adding that many countries were imposing unwarranted trade restrictions that go against the OIE’s recommendations.
It further pointed out that those countries that are members of the OIE “have agreed to procedures for the conduct of trade in breeding stock, live poultry, and poultry meat, including compartmentalization, zoning and regionalization, for managing safe trade in the event of notifiable avian influenza outbreaks in exporting countries.”

OIE global network commits to future animal health challenges

More than 200 international experts of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) scientific network of expertise, representing the 296 OIE reference centers from all around the world, reaffirmed their commitment to constantly disseminate new relevant scientific information to the OIE, and support the scientific accuracy and robustness of OIE publications through contributions or peer reviews. The commitment was made during an OIE global conference, held October 14-16 in Seoul, Korea.
“The need for scientific expertise and advice is constantly increasing and so is the reliance to our network of excellence unique in the world”, highlights Dr. Bernard Vallat, OIE director general.
In addition to further fostering the networking of the OIE reference centers, the conference also focused on new tools for the advancement and exchange of knowledge necessary  strengthen diagnostic capacities worldwide and continuously  improve the response  to current and future sanitary threats. In this context, the conference launched a new strategy on a global pathogen genotype platform as well as a new mechanism for the timely diffusion of new disease detection and control methods to the OIE’s 180 member countries.
The OIE global network of expertise, which has grown considerably stronger over the years, supports - on a voluntary and free of charge basis - the development and the excellence of animal health sciences, animal welfare standards and veterinary public health services. It ensures the scientific foundation of the standards and guidelines adopted by OIE member countries and recognized as intergovernmental references for disease control methods and animal welfare throughout the world.
To date, this OIE global network includes 247 reference laboratories, covering 117 diseases in 38 countries and 49 collaborating centers, covering 46 topics in 26 countries. These institutes are selected by the relevant elected specialist commissions of the OIE according to their scientific excellence and then proposed for adoption by the World Assembly of OIE Delegates.
“Strengthening national veterinary laboratory capacities, and thereby reinforcing the veterinary scientific community is key to face the challenges of the future,” said Vallat. “That’s why since 2006, the OIE has developed a laboratory twinning program between existing OIE reference laboratories or collaborating centers and candidate laboratories. This program allows more member countries to provide reference centers to the OIE network and to develop more appropriate laboratory diagnostic methods worldwide”.
The OIE also supports national veterinary laboratories through the performance of veterinary services (PVS) pathway component dedicated to national laboratories and through a capacity building global program for OIE national focal points for laboratories.

New compartmentalization program for primary breeders

According to a release to members of the American Veterinarians in Egg Production circulated by Dr. Eric Gingerich, the recent National Poultry Improvement Plan Conference accepted a proposal submitted by the Association of Primary Poultry Breeder Veterinarians regarding compartmentalization.
The program adopted by the NPIP incorporates both requirements of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the guidelines recommended by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The compartmentalization program would allow primary breeders to ship product from their facilities, which are subjected to high levels of biosecurity and under surveillance in the presence of diseases which have resulted in area quarantines.
The principle of compartmentalization is designed to facilitate trade and logistics involved in supply of breeding stock.

World Organization for Animal Health director general to address IEC Conference

The director general of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) will address the International Egg Commission Conference held in Paris in mid-April.
Dr. Bernard Vallat will be a keynote speaker and will review how the international egg industry can participate in preventing the spread of poultry diseases. The OIE is the intergovernmental organization responsible for establishing standards for the diagnosis and control of diseases including salmonellosis and avian influenza.
Nick Parsons, head of market strategy for the National Australia Bank, will serve as the keynote speaker for the Economic Session at the IEC meeting. A frequent contributor to the media, he has experience in international finance.