To guarantee the preservation of the Organisation’s institutional memory, the OIE ran its first digitisation programme from 2008 to 2010 [1]. Issues of the Bulletin (1927–1981), articles of the Scientific and Technical Review (1981–2000), World Animal Health reports (since 1981) and all OIE International Standards, Codes and Manuals (since they were first published) were digitised (i.e. scanned from paper to electronic format). These electronic publications were made available via open access on the Documentary Portal, except for the Bulletin, which were only available by request to the Documentation Cell. Cataloguing the Bulletin soon appeared to be very long to achieve with restricted resources.

The Bulletin consists of a miscellaneous collection of reports on OIE activities, containing:

• epidemiological and regulatory information
• scientific articles
• texts on events relating to the OIE
• proceedings and reports of the annual General Session of the International Committee
• all official documents of the OIE and its activities with other international organisations
• original articles on epizootic diseases
• documents and information on international meetings and conferences, conventions, laws and regulations
• statistics on the animal health situation in Member Countries & Territories
• reports of the OIE Specialist and Regional Commissions.

The requests for PDFs of old issues the Bulletin were primarily from the scientific and veterinary communities. Nevertheless, the recent animal health situation and subsequent research has led to an increase in external requests for historical excerpts from the Bulletin, and the decision was taken to put the complete volumes online, with specific articles which made up these volumes to be added progressively.

In total,92* volumes, 700 issues, more than 95,000 pages reflecting the true history of the Organisation are now available to the public. This is more than enough information to take a journey through time and to marvel at the progress made by the OIE in nearly 100 years.

Example of interesting items uncovered in the Bulletin: African swine fever in the 1960s

With the resurgence of African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks around the world, and the need for vaccines and appropriate control programmes, it is interesting to take a look with fresh eyes at the last major ASF epidemic which occurred in Europe in the 1960s. The OIE was present from the outset, first releasing zoosanitary reports at its General Sessions. This included the first report by Prof. Manso Ribeiro from Portugal ‘on a contagious swine disease that appeared in Portugal in 1957’ [2], the results of first vaccination attempts [3], as well as the research of Prof. Sanchez Botija from Spain, who first reported isolating in ASF virus in leukocyte culture from samples from the soft tick Ornithodoros erraticus collected from ASF-infected farms [4].

OIE Bulletin archives also offer the complete retranscription of OIE General Sessions during this period.

How to access the OIE Bulletin digital archives?

You can access the archives either via the OIE Bulletin Collection page, then choose the period or the search term using the advanced search form, which enables you to enter several criteria: volume, date, geographical and thematic keywords, author, as well as to search the full text of PDF documents.

* Do not search for volumes 78, 80 and 90, they have never been published. Other quirks: there is a volume 49 bis, and a 77 bis.

References

1. World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) (2009). – The OIE is digitising its archives and placing them online. OIE Bull., 2009 (1), p. 9. Available at https://doc.oie.int/dyn/portal/index.seam?page=alo&aloId=30863.
2. Manso Ribeiro J. et al. (1958). – Peste porcine provoquée par une souche différente (Souche L) de la souche classique. In Bulletin de l’Office International des Épizooties – Tome L – Mai 1958. Compte rendu de la vingt-sixième session du Comité de l’Office, pp. 516–534. Available at https://doc.oie.int/dyn/portal/index.seam?page=alo&aloId=41349.
3. Manso Ribeiro J. et al. (1963). – Vaccination contre la peste porcine africaine. In Bulletin de l’Office International des Épizooties – Tome LX – Mai 1963. Trente et unième Session Générale du Comité de l’Office, pp. 921–937. Available at https://doc.oie.int/dyn/portal/index.seam?page=alo&aloId=41346.
4. Sanchez Botija C. (1963). – Reservórios del virus de la peste porcina africana. Investigación del virus de la P.P.A. en los artrópodos mediante la prueba de la hemadsorción. In Bulletin de l’Office International des Épizooties – Tome LX – Mai 1963. Trente et unième Session Générale du Comité de l’Office, pp. 895–899. Available at https://doc.oie.int/dyn/portal/index.seam?page=alo&aloId=41425.

 
Contact: OIE Documentation Cell

◼ OIE News – June 2021