President Schneider's speech at the OIE WVA Information / Other stories not categorised Posted by JimEdwards on Jun 02, 2003 - 03:55 PM Presentation to the 71st General Session of the OIE International Committee, Paris, 19th May 2002 Dr. Herbert Schneider President of the World Veterinary Association I am very pleased to have this opportunity to present a brief report on the active collaboration between the OIE and the WVA. We regard our relationship with the OIE as a very important partnership and I wish to thank Dr Vallat, Director General, for his support and constructive engagement regarding our partnership. The WVA, founded in 1863 (140 years ago) is not only the oldest international professional organisation but today, after restructuring and the acceptance of a new Constitution in May 1997, the recognised representative of the veterinary profession on a global level and in all major world organisations such as the United Nations, its bodies such as WHO and FAO, the OIE and the WTO. Membership shows a steady growth and, the WVA represents more than 80 national veterinary associations and thus some 500 000 veterinarians from around the globe. Regions which are under-represented are South America, West-Africa and Asia. I invite OIE members presently not WVA members to consider membership and I shall take the liberty to send you more detailed information and would like to request you to pass this on to your relevant national professional veterinary association.As we entered the new Millennium, new and exciting challenges are facing our profession.. The emphasis is shifting away from the tradition role of direct animal health care to issues concerning food safety, animal welfare and animal production in a sustainable natural environment. Our rapidly increasing human population coupled with our finite resources make this an imperative. New demands for involvement of our profession include bio-security and the threats of bio-terrorism, the protection of our world’s bio-diversity and the protection of our finite environment and the sustainable management of our natural resources. To meet these and many more challenges, our profession has to adopt a multi-disciplinary and holistic approach. The decreasing budgets of governmental veterinary organisations, especially in the developing world, emphasize and highlight the important, ever increasing involvement of private veterinarians in animal health, food safety, animal welfare and environmental issues. To address all these diverse issues, The WVA has entered into collaboration agreements with a number of international organisations. Our agreement with WHO has been extended until 2005 and our cooperation with CODEX Alimentarius will be further improved. Allow me to briefly reflect on our agreement with OIE, which was signed a year ago. A first follow-up meeting was held during the World Veterinary Congress, September 2002 in Tunis. Specific items addressed included the following: * The OIE will accord the WVA permanent observer status on all relevant OIE activities and WVA will be invited to participate at the annual OIE General Session; * Priorities will be driven by improvements being made to the Code and liaison with the medical profession. It was agreed to consult closely to ensure that the WVA and the OIE establish and maintain a common position. * At the World Veterinary Congress 2005, the OIE wants to repeat sponsorship support for participants from developing countries. Congress topics of particular importance to OIE would be Animal Welfare and Food Safety (as it impacts all aspects of the veterinary profession). The following activities were identified in our Agreement as priority areas: * Relationships between “non-official” veterinarians in private practice and “official” veterinary services; and * the development of guidelines on establishment, management and auditing of veterinary services, including the use of technicians and para-veterinarians in certification. During February 2003 the President of the WVA, Dr. H. Schneider, was invited to join the OIE Ad Hoc Group on the role of Private Veterinarians and Para-professionals in the provision of animal health services. The Group produced a set of preliminary recommendations, which are currently the subject of discussions by the various OIE Committees. In a further development the President of the WVA has been requested to join the OIE Steering Committee for the “First Global Conference on Animal Welfare: An OIE Initiative”, with the first meeting scheduled to take place from 12th to 12th June 2003. World Veterinary Day: The WVA celebrated the contributions of the veterinary profession to society worldwide with World Veterinary Day on Saturday 26 April, 2003. This is the third time World Veterinary Day was celebrated around the globe. Although traditionally veterinarians are known by the wider public for the caring and treating of sick and injured animals, the veterinarian?s wide range of expertise enables them to contribute effectively to wide ranging activities such as food safety, zoonosis control and public health, bio-security, trans-boundary animal disease control and eradication, animal welfare, biomedical research and environmental protection. By celebrating World Veterinary Day, it is our endeavour not only contribute to better understanding by the general public of our professions multi-facetted activities, but also to enhance fellowship and friendship within our profession, be it on local, regional, national or international level. I wish to thank Dr. B. Vallat for his active contribution during the celebration of World Veterinary Day during the 13th Inter-American Meeting on Health and Agriculture (RIMSA 13), at PAHO Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The WVA has introduced since October 2002 an Online “Veterinary Bulletin” on its website www.worldvet.org which is daily updated and linked to other international and national veterinary organisations. This daily online Bulletin replaces the former hardcopy “Veterinary Bulletin” which was published twice yearly. I encourage you to visit this website for further detailed information and international veterinary professional news. I wish to record my thanks and appreciation to OIE for their active support and the constructive partnership between our two organisations. I thank you Merci beaucoup Dr. Herbert Schneider PRESIDENT 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=837