How much do you know about the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)?

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE): Mission, Objectives, and Terminology

• The OIE is an international agreement based in Paris, France, founded in 1924, and later became the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), with 180 member countries.
• Its mission is to ensure transparency and enhance knowledge of the worldwide animal health situation.
• The OIE has five unique platforms, including setting international standards for disease prevention, assisting member countries in evaluating and improving their compliance with international standards, and maintaining a global network of reference laboratories and collaborating centers.
• The OIE's World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) is the foremost comprehensive source for the early detection, monitoring, and transparent reporting of animal diseases, including zoonosis.
• The OIE has introduced the concepts of zoning and compartmentalization to maintain animal disease-free status in parts of national territories.
• Its mandate is to improve animal health worldwide and achieve six primary objectives, including ensuring transparency in the global animal disease situation, publishing international animal health standards, and improving legal frameworks and resources for veterinary services.
• The OIE has defined terms such as animal health status, animal identification, animal welfare, biosecurity plan, and official control program, among others.
• The OIE has listed diseases into two categories, List A and List B, with different levels of socio-economic and public health significance and importance in international trade.
• The Philippine government has classified animal diseases into three categories, including first priority diseases, second priority diseases, and emerging diseases, with different levels of prevention, control, and eradication programs.
• The OIE works to ensure the sanitary safety of international trade in terrestrial animals and their products by detailing the health measures to be used by the veterinary services of importing and exporting countries.
• The OIE aims to avoid the transfer of pathogenic or zoonotic agents without imposing unjustified trade restrictions.
• The OIE collaborates with the WHO to improve compliance with both WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) and OIE standards on the quality of veterinary services.