Terrestrial Animal Health Code
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Terrestrial Animal Health Code |
The OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code (hereafter referred to as the Terrestrial Code) sets out standards for the improvement of terrestrial animal health and welfare and veterinary public health worldwide, and for safe international trade in terrestrial animals (mammals, reptiles, birds and bees) and their products. The health measures in the Terrestrial Code should be used by the Veterinary Authorities of importing and exporting countries for early detection, reporting and control of agents pathogenic to terrestrial animals and, in the case of zoonoses, for humans, and to prevent their transfer via international trade in terrestrial animals and their products, while avoiding unjustified sanitary barriers to trade.
The standards in the Terrestrial Code have been formally adopted by the World Assembly of OIE Delegates, which constitutes the organisation's highest decision-making body. This 25th edition incorporates modifications to the Terrestrial Code agreed at the 84th General Session in May 2016. The 2016 edition includes an updated version of the table of contents, user's guide and glossary, and revised text in the following chapters: notification of diseases, infections and infestations, and provision of epidemiological information; criteria for the inclusion of diseases, infections and infestations in the OIE list; diseases, infections and infestations listed by the OIE; evaluation of Veterinary Services; monitoring of the quantities and usage patterns of antimicrobial agents used in food-producing animals; slaughter of animals; killing of animals for disease control purposes; animal welfare and broiler chicken production systems; animal welfare and dairy cattle production systems; infection with bluetongue virus; infection with epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus; infection with Rift Valley fever virus; infection with Trichinella spp.; infection with peste des petits ruminants virus; and infection with Taenia solium (porcine cysticercosis).
This edition includes a new chapter covering the welfare of working equids (7.12.).
Chapter 1.3. on prescribed and alternative diagnostic tests for OIE listed diseases has been deleted from this edition.
The development of these standards and recommendations is the result of the ongoing work by the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission (hereafter referred to as the Code Commission). This Commission, which comprises six elected members, meets twice yearly to address its work programme. The Code Commission draws upon the expertise of internationally renowned specialists to prepare draft texts for new articles of the Terrestrial Code and to revise existing articles. The views of OIE National Delegates are routinely sought through the twice yearly circulation of draft texts. The Code Commission collaborates closely with other Specialist Commissions of the OIE, including the Aquatic Animal Health Standards Commission, the Biological Standards Commission and the Scientific Commission for Animal Diseases, to ensure that the recommendations contained in the Terrestrial Code are based upon the latest scientific information.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (hereafter referred to as the SPS Agreement) formally recognises the role of the OIE as the international standard setting organisation for animal health and zoonotic diseases. According to the SPS Agreement, WTO Members should align their import requirements with the recommendations in the relevant standards of the OIE. Where there are no OIE recommendations or if the country chooses a level of protection requiring measures more stringent than the standards of the OIE, these should be based on an import risk analysis conducted in accordance with Chapter 2.1. The Terrestrial Code is thus a key part of the WTO legal framework for international trade.
The Terrestrial Code is published annually in the three official OIE languages (English, French and Spanish). An unofficial translation into Russian is also available from the OIE upon request. The Terrestrial Code may be viewed and downloaded from the OIE Web site at http://www.oie.int.
The User's guide, which follows this foreword, is designed to help Veterinary Authorities and other interested parties to use the Terrestrial Code.
We wish to thank the members of the Code Commission, Delegates and the experts participating in Working Groups and ad hoc Groups and other Specialist Commissions for their expert advice. Finally but not least, my thanks go to the staff of the OIE for their dedication in producing this 25th edition of the Terrestrial Code.
Members of the
OIE Code Commission (2015-2016):
President:
Dr Etienne Bonbon
Vice-President:
Prof. Stuart C. MacDiarmid
Vice-President:
Dr Gaston Maria Funes
Members:
Dr Masatsugu Okita, Dr Emmanuel Couacy-Hyman and Prof. Salah Hammami
June 2016
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2016 ©OIE - Terrestrial Animal Health Code |
