- Terrestrial Animal Health Code
The OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code (the Terrestrial Code) sets out standards for the improvement of animal health and welfare and veterinary public health worldwide, including through standards for safe international trade in terrestrial animals (mammals, birds and bees) and their products. The health measures in the Terrestrial Code should be used by the veterinary authorities of importing and exporting countries to provide for early detection, reporting and control agents pathogenic to animals or humans, and to prevent their transfer via international trade in animals and animal products, while avoiding unjustified sanitary barriers to trade.
The health measures in the TerrestrialCode have been formally adopted by the World Assembly of the Delegates of the OIE Members. This 21th edition incorporates the modifications to the Terrestrial Code agreed during the 80th General Session in May 2012.
The 21st edition incorporates modifications to the Terrestrial Code agreed at the 80th OIE General Session in May 2012. The 2012 edition includes revised information on the following subjects: glossary; notification of diseases and epidemiological information; criteria for the inclusion of diseases, infections and infestations on the OIE List; animal health surveillance; procedures for self declaration and for official recognition by the OIE; import risk analysis; evaluation of Veterinary Services; communication; application of compartmentalisation; collection and processing of bovine, small ruminant and porcine semen; collection and processing of in vivo derived embryos from livestock and horses; official health control of bee diseases; OIE procedures relevant to the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the World Trade Organization; model veterinary certificate for international movements of dogs, cats and ferrets originating from countries considered infected with rabies; biosecurity procedures in poultry production; harmonization of national antimicrobial resistance surveillance and monitoring programmes; monitoring of the quantities and usage patterns of antimicrobial agents used in food producing animals; zoonoses transmissible from non-human primates; introduction to the recommendations for animal welfare; use of animals in research and education; Aujeszky's disease; rabies; African horse sickness; equine influenza; equine viral arteritis; avian influenza; and rabbit haemorrhagic disease.
This edition includes two new chapters on veterinary legislation and animal welfare and beef cattle production systems and incorporates a new model veterinary certificate for international trade in laboratory animals.
The development of these standards and recommendations is the result of the continuous work since 1960 of one of the OIE's Specialist Commissions, the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission. The first Terrestrial Code was published in 1968. This Commission draws upon the expertise of internationally renowned specialists to prepare draft texts for new articles of the Terrestrial Code or revise existing articles in the light of advances in veterinary science.
The value of the Terrestrial Code is twofold: that the measures published in it are the result of consensus among the veterinary authorities of OIE Members, and that it constitutes a reference within the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures as an international standard for animal health and zoonoses.
The OIE Terrestrial Code is a reference document for use by Veterinary Authorities, import/export services, epidemiologists and all those involved in international trade.
A users' guide is available.
The Terrestrial Code is published annually in paper form in the three official OIE languages (English, French and Spanish), and in Russian. The contents of the 2012 version of the TerrestrialCode can be consulted in Web format.
Terrestrial Code21th Edition, 2012
29.7 x 21 cm
ISBN of volume I: 978-92-9044-855-6
ISBN of volume II: 978-92-9044-856-3
Price: 51 euros
Ref.: A 199
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- Eliminating rabies in dogs is the optimal control method for preventing spread of the disease
- Dog vaccination and stray dog populations control are more efficient and cost effective than post-bite treatment in humans
Paris , 13 March 2009 – Prevention at the animal source is the optimal key in dealing with a prevalent and perennial zoonotic disease like rabies. Upstream control of rabies infection in dogs, including the control of in excess stray dog populations, should rank high on the agenda of developing countries’ national health and veterinary authorities for an efficient prevention of human and animal mortalities.
“The cost of a post-bite treatment in humans is about twenty to one hundred times more costly than the vaccination of a dog”, Dr Bernard Vallat, Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) explains. « Currently with only 10% of the financial resources used worldwide to treat people after a dog bite Veterinary Services would be able to eradicate rabies in animals and thus stop almost all human cases ”, he added.
Animal vaccination remains the method of choice to control and eradicate rabies. For ethical, ecological and economical reasons, the OIE advises against trying to control and eradicate rabies by killing potentially infected animals, as a sole method. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that all successful rabies eradication campaigns in the developing world have included programmes for the control of in excess stray dog populations as well as the systemic vaccination of owned dogs.
National Veterinary Services are a buffer between the animal source and human infections
It is the prime responsibility of veterinarians to apply their knowledge and skills in animal disease control to break the link between the animal source of the disease and infection of susceptible humans .
“Good governance of veterinary services, better laboratory diagnostic capacity and well structured vaccination campaigns in domestic and wild animals are the key actions to be taken. Raising public awareness of rabies and of the need for collaboration with other professions involved, namely the public health sector, should also be emphasised.
Canine rabies and rabies in wildlife: different problems in different parts of the world
Worldwide the most common cause by far of human rabies infections is dog bites, but animal reservoirs of the disease differ from one region of the world another.
In developing countries the dog is the principal reservoir of rabies. Today, Far East Asia and Africa are the regions of the world most affected by canine rabies and where countries have the highest rates of human infection and human and animal deaths due to rabies.
In the northern hemisphere, where dog rabies has nearly been eliminated, rabies in wildlife is the main problem. In Eastern European countries, the red fox is the main reservoir for the disease and vulpine (fox) rabies represents the majority of all cases.
Rabies is a neglected and severely under-reported zoonotic disease in developing countries, killing each year worldwide an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people, mostly children with terrible suffering and a much higher number of animals.
The OIE strongly supports World Rabies Day on the 28 th of September.
1.Rabies continues to kill in Africa and Asia
Paris, 9 August 2010 - Numerous fatal human cases of rabies, particularly affecting children, occur every day in Africa and Asia, for example in Indonesia and the Philippines. The increase in human cases is linked to the proliferation of roaming dogs, which include dogs having owners as well as stray dogs.
Control of the stray dog population makes a significant contribution to preventing human rabies cases. The OIE has adopted and published international standards on this matter and recommends their application worldwide (Section 7, 2010 Terrestrial Animal Health Code,
“However when local conditions allow it, dog vaccination is the most efficient measure. The cost of vaccinating dogs is very much lower than the cost of treating people after they have been bitten,” Dr Bernard Vallat, OIE Director General explains.
Vaccination of stray dog population is very difficult to implement in developing countries. Some researchers estimate that it costs approximately US $100 to catch, sterilize and vaccinate one stray dog and this would apply to thousands of dogs in those countries. Most often, it turns out that international assistance is essential.
Great hope is put on the development of oral vaccines for stray dogs which will avoid the logistic and economic challenges of catching and vaccinating dogs parenterally.
The OIE urges international companies involved in the development of dog rabies vaccines to speed up research for the production of efficient oral vaccines at a reasonable cost.
To address these concerns the OIE is organizing a World Conference in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 7,8 and 9 September 2011: “Global Conference on Rabies Control: Towards Sustainable Prevention at the Source” (
Dr Vallat adds: “even if a small share of the funds that have been dedicated to treating people for bites was invested in management of the rabies situation in wild, stray and pet animals it would have dramatic impact on reducing human cases worldwide.”
Background information
OIE web portal on rabies
World rabies day
September 28 2010