Canada's contribution to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) standard-setting process

As a member of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), Canada has the opportunity to provide comments on standards and guidelines developed by the following OIE Commissions: Terrestrial Animal Health Standards, Aquatic Animal Health Standards, and Biological Standards.

The OIE Delegates are responsible for coordinating comments on these standards and guidelines. The current Canadian Delegate to the OIE is Dr. Brian Evans, Chief Food Safety Officer and Chief Veterinary Officer for Canada, and the comments, on behalf of Canada, are coordinated through his office.

The consultation process takes place twice a year, usually in the summer and in the fall, after the Commissions meet.

The consultation process

Revised and draft texts of the relevant standards are provided electronically to seek scientific and expert views and comments from all sectors throughout Canada—federal government departments, provincial veterinary authorities, industry, academia and non-governmental organizations.

Comments received by the Canadian Delegate’s office are reviewed, and, if they are supported by appropriate scientific rationale, they will then form part of Canada's official comments on the revised and draft texts.

At the OIE's Specialist Commission level, those comments that are supported by sound scientific information or validated by working groups composed of subject matter experts will be taken into account and draft standards may be revised accordingly.

Contributing your comments

Canada has been recognized by the OIE for the consistently high quality of its scientific contributions to international standard development.

When providing comments, it is important for you to do the following:

• State your comments clearly—rewrite the text the way you feel it should read. For revised documents, please limit your comments to the revised sections only, which are shown either by double underline (indicating new text) or by strikeout (indicating that the text will be deleted).
• Provide your comments directly on the electronic version of the text, using BOLD and colour so that they are not overlooked.
• Include scientific rationale or references to support your proposed changes. Because the Canadian position on draft and/or revised texts depends entirely on technical and scientific merit, it is crucial that scientific rationale is provided.

Documents available for comment

If you have subscribed to the email notification services for OIE consultations, you will receive the reports of the Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission for review and comment.

Please send your comments, revisions and supporting scientific rationale via email, fax or mail to:

Tianna MacInnes
Senior International Standards Advisor
World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Coordination
tianna.macinnes@inspection.gc.ca
tel: 613-773-5768
fax: 613-773-5694
1400 Merivale Road, Tower 1
Ottawa, ON K1A 0Y9

For all other OIE-related inquiries, please contact Tianna MacInnes at the above coordinates.