Information dissemination
WHO is working with existing partnerships with the Office international des Epizooties (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO) to address problems related to animal health, animal food and human food. The OIE is responsible at the global level for animal health and prepares the OIE Animal Health Code that guides national authorities on appropriate animal health measures. FAO is the United Nations agency responsible for global food security and safety.
Since 1991, WHO has convened nine scientific consultations on issues related to human and animal TSEs; the ultimate goal of the meetings was to better protect human and animal health. Experts who participated reviewed the possible human public health implications of animal TSEs, with special emphasis on BSE. The consultations also reviewed the evolving state of knowledge on these diseases, evaluated possible means of transmission and identified risk factors for infection.
See information resources for full details of these consultations.
As more scientific information on BSE and vCJD becomes available, groups of independent experts are assembled by WHO in order to update the state-of-the art. WHO provides a neutral scientific forum in which scientific questions related to BSE and vCJD can be reviewed, evaluated and debated.