The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), now designated as a public international organization, will establish a liaison office in the United States later this year.

Over the past few years, the OIE has developed a number of activities to foster improved interaction with interested stakeholders through public-private partnerships. These partnerships will seek to stimulate increased investments in animal health and welfare, as well as the establishment of development programs targeting the livestock sector.

This OIE U.S. office will be located in College Station, Texas, at the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, a unit within the Texas A&M University System that was recognized as an OIE Collaborating Centre in the domain of biological threat reduction in 2014. The OIE office is expected to open on Oct. 1 with the aims of increasing collaboration, establishing partnerships, and maintaining donor relations with several U.S. state agencies and departments as well as U.S.-based organizations that have an interest in global animal health and animal welfare. This office will also offer support to the OIE headquarters, based in Paris, France, accomplish the OIE’s Sixth Strategic Plan.

The OIE is recognized as the reference organization for animal health and zoonoses by the World Trade Organization. Created in 1924, the OIE’s missions are