Dr Bernard Vallat
Director General
World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
Global Animal Health Challenges:
the Health Pillar
ILRI-World Bank High Level Consultation
on Global Livestock Agenda by 2020
Nairobi, 12-13 March 2012
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• Complex relationships between wildlife, domestic
animals, and humans co-existing in common
ecosystems
• Combined with changes in land use
• animal production
• growth and heightened urbanization of the human
population
• deforestation
 Altered equilibrium between humans,
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domestic animals, and wildlife

The growing importance of the zoonotic
potential of animal pathogens
60% of human pathogens are
zoonotic
75% of emerging diseases are
zoonotic
80% of agents with potential
bioterrorist use are zoonotic
pathogens
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Trends in animal protein consumption
 Shift from poverty to middle-class (+1 billion
people expected)
 Increase in the number of daily meals
 More milk, eggs and meat in meals
 Intensification of production cannot be avoided
 We must be prepared to face new threats
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OIE Approach
• Promote the fundamental responsibilities of
Veterinary Services and their government partners
and relevant stakeholders to protect and improve
animal health, including aspects related to wildlife.
• Recognize the need to improve governance and
capacity of all Members to conduct surveillance,
early detection, and initiate appropriate response to
national or international biological events and
spread of diseases in animals, including wildlife
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Managing the Interface
• Wildlife and domestic populations often have
different health status
• Freedom from diseases is not always attainable at
a national or regional level especially in developing
countries
• The goal of the OIE is to maximize animal health
and trade benefits, while minimizing negative
effects on other populations
• Human, animal and environmental factors must
therefore be taken into account
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Updating OIE Standards and Safe Trade
Facilitating Mechanisms
• Promote harmonization of national regulations
addressing the human-domestic animal-wildlife
interfaces
• Disease free zoning and compartmentalisation
• Safe trade in animal origin commodities
• Need for a multidisciplinary cooperation by
stakeholders (including public and non-governmental
organisations) to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes
7 within the human-domestic animal-wildlife interfaces

OIE Continues to Develop
Science-based Standards
• Through the work of the OIE Working Group on Wildlife
Diseases (est. 1996)
• Surveillance and global notification mechanisms for
domestic and wildlife diseases (OIE WAHIS and WAHIS-
Wild)
• Data sharing at the international level on the collaborative
FAO/OIE/WHO GLEWS platform
• Capacity building (e.g. national Delegates and focal points)
• Appropriate sampling and diagnostic expertise for domestic
and wild animals
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OIE Science-based Standards
Goal: harmonise the measures
minimizing risk in the relationships
between wildlife, domestic animals, and
humans
•Reducing risk of disease transmission
(including zoonoses) using national and global
surveillance, prevention and control methods
•Safeguarding biodiversity
•Maintaining availability of high-quality protein
for consumption
•Supporting safe international trade
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Need for Science-based Guidance
• Diagnostic methods for diseases in wildlife
• Diagnosis of diseases in wildlife
• Testing to support safe legal movement of wild species
• Disease surveillance and management tools relevant to
disease in domestic and wild animals
• Outbreak investigations when wildlife are involved
• Vaccination of wild species
• Cooperation with potential partners
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Rabies in Europe
• Predominantly sylvatic
• Wildlife account for 80% of animal
cases (WHO)
• Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) 80% of
these
• Raccoon dog in Eastern Europe
• Oral vaccine developed 25
years ago
• Highly effective
• Aerial distribution
• Many European countries now free
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From: Dr Howard Pharo,, OIE Global Conference on Wildlife Animal Health and
Biodiversity Paris (France) 23-25 February 2011

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From: Dr Howard Pharo,, OIE Global Conference on Wildlife Animal Health and
Biodiversity Paris (France) 23-25 February 2011

The Need to Increase Transparency and
Avoid Undue Restrictions on Trade
• Increasing legal trade of wildlife – global movement of
animals and animal products
• Differentiating the identification of disease in wildlife from
disease in domestic animals
• clear guidance when the findings in wildlife do not have
implications for the safe trade of domestic animals and
products
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Need To Adapt To The Situation
Notification Of Diseases In Wild Animals
Encourage countries to notify wild animal diseases while
preventing the negative impact on trade for transparent
countries
• Better understanding of disease situation in both
domestic and wild animals
• Better risk evaluation and analysis for importing
countries
• Less unjustified trade barriers
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WAHIS – Secure Access system
OIE Listed disease Non OIE listed disease
T New Disease / Infection Unusual epidemiological event
Emerging disease
R
Early warning
Immediate notification
A
N Follow-up reports
S
P Final report
A Six-monthly report
WAHIS
Database
R
Monitoring
on OIE Listed disease / infection
absent or present
E
Annual report
N
C
Web interface
Y
WAHID
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must work in parallel with WHO-IHR Agreement 15

Annual Wildlife report: WAHIS-Wild
Divided in two sections: Obligatory
– OIE-listed diseases in wild species
• Already entered in the six-monthly reports
• Automatically transferred into the draft Annual wildlife report
• To be checked, corrected and completed if needed by each OIE national
focal point for wildlife
• Changes have to be agreed by the national Delegate
• Data will be displayed on WAHID
Voluntary
– Non OIE-listed wildlife diseases
• To be processed by the focal point for wildlife
• Data will be displayed on a specific website
• Many new investments are on-going to capture more details in all wildlife
disease events
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Need for Capacity Building
• It is a fundamental responsibility of public and private components
of Veterinary Services to protect and improve animal health,
including issues related to wildlife and biodiversity
----- and -----
• There is a need to increase the capacity of all countries worldwide
to do surveillance, early detection, and initiate appropriate
response to outbreaks and spread of diseases in animal including
wildlife
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Capacity Building
• OIE PVS Pathway
• OIE national focal points on wildlife
• To know and interact with wildlife network within a
country
• To identify needs for capacity building
• To provide expert advice to the OIE Delegate
• To ensure the optimal collection of data and the
submission of wildlife disease information
• To provide national comments during standard setting
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G20 Ministerial Declaration
Meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers, June 2011 Action Plan
on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture
(25.) As far as public health, animal health and plant health
are concerned, we stress the importance of strengthening
international and regional networks, international standard
setting taking into account national and regional differences,
information, surveillance and traceability systems, good
governance and official services, since they ensure an
early detection and a rapid response to biological threats,
facilitate trade flows and contribute to global food
security (…)
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G20 Ministerial Declaration
Meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers, June 2011 Action Plan
on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture
(…)
We encourage international organizations, especially FAO,
the World Health Organization (WHO), the World
Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Codex
Alimentarius Commission (Codex), the International Plant
Protection Convention (IPPC) and WTO to continue their
efforts towards enhancing interagency cooperation.
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Organisation mondiale
de la santé animale
World Organisation
for Animal Health
Organización Mundial
de Sanidad Animal
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12 rue de Prony, 75017 Paris, France - www.oie.int – oie@oie.int