OIE: New official disease status

The following new countries and zones were officially recognised free from disease at this year’s General Session and will be delivered a certificate:

• Latvia and Uruguay, as well as a zone in Ecuador were granted a “Classical swine fever (CSF) free” status;
• Zones in Bolivia, Botswana and Kazakhstan were recognised as “Foot and mouth disease (FMD) free without vaccination”;
• Peru and Uruguay were granted “Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) free” status;
• Croatia was recognised as being “free from Peste des petits ruminants (PPR)”;
• Serbia was recognised as having a “negligible Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk” status and Ecuador was recognised as having a “controlled BSE risk” status.

From this year, the OIE Resolutions will list the overseas territories that are included as part of the country’s official status, and the clarified procedure for Members to apply for inclusion of any overseas territories is available on the OIE website.

Apart from the official status recognition issued during the OIE General Session, OIE Members can self-declare the freedom from a disease, with the exception of the aforementioned six priority diseases, all year long through the self-declaration procedure. Under the responsibility of OIE Members, self-declarations provide a way to enhance transparency on the animal health situation and to give visibility, in a timely manner, to the absence of diseases in countries. They can be consulted here: www.oie.int/selfdeclaration.

The countries self-declarations are of importance to the OIE and are therefore published on its website. However, it is to be noted that they do not reflect the official opinion of the Organisation.