26th Conference of the OIE Regional Commission for Asia and the Pacific

OIE will support Members establish free zones for certain equine diseases

Shanghai , 20 November 2009 – The OIE will support Members in establishing free zones for certain equine diseases in Asia and the Pacific countries, representatives of the organisation’s Headquarters announced in the 26 th Conference of the OIE Regional Commission for Asia.

The Conference held in Shanghai, China from 16 to 20 November 2009 notably produced groundbreaking recommendations for the OIE to frame the elaboration of equine disease free zones (EDFZs) for specific events such as global or regional horse competitions (Olympics on Asian Games), as well as develop a relevant health certification for horses.

“The impact of equine diseases is often underestimated while they actually can cause significant disruption, especially when related to specific horse competition events where the animals are moved internationally”, OIE Director General, Dr Bernard Vallat explained.

Today, the OIE already has official freedom recognition procedures in place but mainly for cattle diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Rinderpest. The procedures for official recognition can be found on the OIE website at: http://www.oie.int/eng/info/en_procedures.htm?eld6 .

Pounding on the value of PVS evaluations for Members

In order to realise ambitions on the official recognition of free status of animal diseases, including of certain equine disease free zones OIE Members decided to keep strengthening governance of their animal health systems using the OIE Tool for the Evaluation of Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS).

“The use of the OIE PVS tool facilitates Members’ disease freedom self-declaration as well as OIE official recognition and will allow EDFZs recognition for specific horse competition events in the near future”, Dr Vallat commented, “It provides with a fully-integrated capacity building programme and supports the upgrading of evaluated national Veterinary Services, including laboratory and veterinary education components”, he added.

Specifically, scientific support brought to Members by the OIE Twinning Initiative in laboratory capacity improvement was recognised as successful. This twinning programme allows direct exchanges of scientists from twinned laboratories and facilitates building and reinforcing the Veterinary Scientific Community in Asian and Pacific Members.

Several animal health improvement programmes in Asia will be part of OIE’s involvement in the Regional Cooperation Program on Highly Pathogenic and Emerging Diseases in Asia (HPED) currently under negotiation with the European Commission. The programme – which foresees a strong OIE/FAO/WHO partnership - aims at the prevention of highly pathogenic and other diseases – focusing on foot and mouth disease and rabies - in a framework of regional integration and inter-sectoral collaboration among the three organisations and other appropriate regional and national entities.

The Conference was opened by Her Excellency Ms Uyunqimg, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress: “I express gratitude to the support provided by the OIE to its Members. Our country strongly supports OIE’s actions to promote the control of animal diseases and zoonoses worldwide and in the Region.” she said.

Participants in the Conference included high level animal health and production government officials of OIE Members from the region and of regional and global organisations.

The Conference was kindly hosted by the Government of China. It was chaired by Dr Zhang Zhongqiu Delegate of China to the OIE with the support of the OIE Headquarters, the OIE Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific and the OIE sub Regional Representation based in Bangkok.

All participants welcomed the conference as a great success.