. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/646 
24 March 2006 
 (06-1338) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English/ 
 French/  Spanish 
 
  
REPORT ON OIE ACTIVITIES TO THE 35
TH MEETING  
OF THE WTO SPS COMMITTEE 
 
Communication from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE ) 
  
 The following communication, received on 23 Marc h 2006, is being circulated at the request 
of the OIE. 
 
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OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code   
1. The OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Standa rds Commission met from 6 to 10 March 2006 at 
the OIE Headquarters to address member countri es' comments to the proposals made at its 
September 2005 meeting, as well as work done by various OIE ad hoc  groups (on bovine spongiform 
encephalopathy (BSE), equine infl uenza, and animal identificatio n and traceability) and the Animal 
Production Food Safety Working Group.  
2. Major issues being presented for adoption at th e May 2006 meeting of the OIE International 
Committee include:  the evaluation of veterinary ser vices, zoning and compartmentalization, criteria 
for listing diseases for reporting purposes, foot an d mouth disease, bluetongue, BSE (disease chapter 
and surveillance appendix), classical swine fever, avian influenza (disease  chapter, surveillance 
appendix and newly developed guidelines for vi rus inactivation), animal identification and 
traceability, and equine diseases. 
3. The report of the Terrestrial Code Commission is accessible at http://www.oie.int
.  
OIE Aquatic Animal Health Code  
 
4. The OIE Aquatic Animal Health Standards Commission met from 13 to 17 March 2006 at the 
OIE Headquarters to address member countries' comments and work done by various OIE ad hoc  
groups.  The Aquatic Animals Commission proposed up dated chapters to the May 2006 meeting of 
the OIE International Committee, with a view to maximizing harmonization among fish, mollusc and 
crustacean disease chapters.  The OIE listed diseases  for aquatic animals were also discussed and an 
updated version is proposed to OIE member count ries.  Other topics of discussion were the OIE 
Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals , OIE reference laboratories, the new OIE disease 
notification system and the OIE global conferen ce on aquatic animal health to be held in 
October 2006 in Norway.  
5. The report of the Aquatic Animals Commission is accessible at http://www.oie.int . G/SPS/GEN/646 
Page 2  
 
  OIE Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals  (Terrestrial  Manual ) 
 
6. A new edition of the Terrestrial Manual  is produced every four years.  Certain important 
chapters are updated in between editions, with the updates being added annually to the web version of 
the Terrestrial Manual  following adoption by the OIE Intern ational Committee.  The OIE Biological 
Standards Commission proposed the following chapters for adoption in May 2006: principles of 
validation of diagnostic assays for infectious di seases (to bring the chapter in line with the OIE 
validation template); principles of veterinary vaccine production; and foot and mouth disease (a 
section on vaccine matching tests has been adde d along with updated information on vaccine 
manufacturing and clarification of the use of certain tests). 
OIE Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals  (Aquatic  Manual ) 
 
7. In May 2006, the fifth edition of the Aquatic Manual  will be presented fo r adoption.  Updated 
chapters for all of the OIE listed diseases will be included in the fifth edition.  For those diseases no 
longer listed, the 2003 version of  the chapter will be reproduced. 
  
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