Improving animal health worldwide is a priority Opinion & Comment / Information Releases from other Sources Posted by JimEdwards on Nov 12, 2007 - 02:35 PM Source: Dr Bernard Vallat [1] By adopting the OIE's Fourth Strategic Plan in May 2005, our Member Countries and Territories confirmed their decision to update our mandate. The OIE was created in 1924 with the aim of controlling the international spread of infectious animal diseases, but now, over and above this original mission, our new mandate is ‘to improve animal health worldwide'. This considerably broadens our responsibilities, since not only does it require all our Members to share the same political will, but new institutional and technical mechanisms for preventing and controlling animal diseases will have to be developed at a national, regional and worldwide level. To succeed, the OIE must now provide policy makers with the right information, arguments and tools for this political will to be exercised effectively and sustainably. These arguments must first and foremost be founded on a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the political, social and economic benefits to be gained by investing more in new national, regional and worldwide animal health systems. Read more [2] ... This article is from World Veterinary Association   http://worldvet.org/ The URL for this story is:   http://worldvet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3873 Links in this article   [1] http://www.oie.int/eng/edito/en_lastedito.htm   [2] http://www.oie.int/eng/edito/en_lastedito.htm