Originally from: Mike
                        
I have summarised below a bit about the significant move of The World Organisation for Animal Health (commonly still referred to by its old name "OIE" standing for Office International des Epizooties) into the area of global aspects of farm animal welfare. I welcome the comments of Farmtalking folks on these emerging trends...

OIE controls the international movement of animals and animal products via a set of international codes of practice which are followed by countries all over the world.

OIE has formerly concerned itself only with controlling the risk of spreading diseases between countries but 3 years ago started to take on board the issue of animal welfare, in connection with..

a) transport of animals
b) harmonisation of international welfare standards to facilitate trade in ethically-produced animal products b) humane control measures for epidemic diseases

As a prelude to producing welfare codes OIE has just produced 2 monumental scientific reviews (textbooks) of animal welfare. One is devoted to reviewing Global Issues, Trends & Challenges in Livestock Welfare. The other huge manual covers welfare in relation to (as well as technical aspects of) cloning and genetic engineering of farm animals, which is proceeding quite fast now in some countries.

More information about these new OIE manuals can be found here: www.pighealth.com/offers/welfare.htm

OIE and Livestock Welfare in Disease Epidemics

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has always contributed to animal welfare by encouraging world-wide control of epidemic diseases. However, control of epidemic diseases has been having a bad press in recent years from those concerned about animal welfare.

The first "bad press" experience was probably the European epidemic of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) in 1990–92, where prolonged movement bans resulted in some terrible problems of growing hogs accumulating on farms that lacked sufficient suitable housing and/or the financial reserves to keep feeding and caring for an unexpected surge in herd size.

Welfare problems came to the fore even more powerfully during the prolonged and extensive movement bans of the Dutch hog cholera (classical swine fever) epidemic of 1997–8. Then, in 2000, movement bans in Britain during a series of hog cholera outbreaks were seen to exacerbate existing problems of PMWS and other diseases on farms in controlled areas.

In 2001, animal welfare problems associated with epidemic controls attracted world-wide headlines during the UK foot and mouth disease epidemic. Here the welfare problems were not just lack of housing, grazing, overcrowding stress, disease build-up etc, but also the problem of slaughtering huge numbers of animals under on-farm conditions that were sometimes quite unsuitable, combined with a shortage of adequately trained and experienced personnel to do the killing.

International Trade Issues

The second development that had made animal welfare a specific key issue for OIE is the growth in national and international legislation on welfare, which in turn has led to international trade issues where some countries wish to have assurance that the welfare standards behind imported animal products are equivalent to home-produced standards.

OIE is essentially the body co-ordinating the activities of, and liaising between, government veterinary services around the world but increasingly it works also in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). OIE now uses the name "World Organisation for Animal Health" – it was originally called The Office International des Epizooties and is still popularly known as OIE. Most countries in the world are members, and represented via their Chief Veterinary Officers and State Veterinary Services.

Mike
www.sunflower-health.com