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 Terrestrial Code have been formally adopted by the World Assembly of the Delegates of the OIE Members. This 20th edition incorporates the modifications to the Terrestrial Code agreed during the 79th General Session in May 2011.

These include revised chapters on the following subjects: glossary; notification of diseases and epidemiological information; procedures for self declaration and for official recognition by the OIE; Veterinary Services; evaluation of Veterinary Services; design and implementation of identification systems to achieve animal traceability; zoning and compartmentalisation; application of compartmentalisation; general hygiene in semen collection and processing centres; collection and processing of bovine, small ruminant and porcine semen; collection and processing of in vivo derived embryos from livestock and horses; general recommendations on disinfection and disinsectisation; certification procedures; OIE procedures relevant to the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures; quarantine measures applicable to non-human primates; model veterinary certificates for international trade in live animals, hatching eggs and products of animal origin; control of hazards of animal health and public health importance in animal feed; biosecurity procedures in poultry production; prevention, detection and control of Salmonella in poultry; transport of animals by land; transport of animals by air; slaughter of animals; killing of animals for disease control purposes; control of stray dog populations and use of animals in research and education; anthrax; Aujeszky’s disease; bluetongue; foot and mouth disease; vesicular stomatitis; avian influenza; Newcastle disease; contagious bovine pleuropneumonia; lumpy skin disease; equine influenza; equine viral arteritis; Chlamydophila abortus infection and scrapie.

This edition includes a new chapter on communication.

The chapters on avian tuberculosis, duck virus enteritis, fowl cholera and Marek’s disease were deleted from this edition.

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 2011 version of the Terrestrial Code can be consulted in Web format.