WOAH has recently published new templates to better guide its Members in compiling their self-declarations of animal health statuses for both terrestrial and aquatic animal diseases. Also, new and improved display and search functionalities on the website will enhance user experience.

Publication of self-declarations on the WOAH website provides an opportunity for Members to increase the visibility of their animal health status and associated risk mitigation measures in place, to promote the quality of their Veterinary Services, and to demonstrate transparency in animal disease reporting and continuous compliance with WOAH standards. Self-declarations can be submitted at any time of the year, and their publication is free of charge. However, it is important to note that the content is entirely under the responsibility of the WOAH Delegate.

Responding to the growing interest in the publication of self-declarations of aquatic animal health status, and further to the adoption of revised chapters in the Aquatic Animal Health Code (in particular the articles on disease freedom), WOAH has developed a specific template to assist Members in compiling their self-declarations for publication on the Organisation’s website. This template presents the four pathways that can be used to claim freedom from an aquatic animal disease and describes, in detail, the information that an applicant Member is expected to substantiate when submitting a self-declaration.

A similar template for terrestrial animal health status has also been developed, guiding Members in compiling information in accordance with the relevant chapters of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code.

Both templates and the dedicated Standard Operating Procedure for publication of self-declarations of animal health status (and Equine Disease Free Zones), can be found on the dedicated web page. 

In addition, to facilitate users’ access to the published self-declarations, the website presentation has also been improved. This new display now allows sorting and searching by disease, Member, region and the start date of validity. Only the active self-declarations can be accessed online but the list of all published self-declarations since 2000 is available with their start and end dates.

The Organisation continues to improve its system for maintaining the list of published self-declarations to ensure that they are accurate and up-to-date with the current WOAH standards.

Contact: self-declaration@woah.org