In a world with increasing globalisation, animal diseases can have an enormous impact. Its suprising, but true, that when considering what “animals” we are talking about, its common for people to think in terms of agriculture and overlook issues relating to wildlife, and illegal trade.

The Director General of the OIE has referred to this recently, stating: “Wildlife diseases are of growing concern worldwide. In addition to threatening populations of wild animals themselves, wildlife disease can affect domestic animals and human health. This is particularly true in present days, when emerging diseases shared by both animals and humans increasingly come to our attention in the new context of globalisation of movement of commodities and climate change. Furthermore the legal and illegal market of wildlife which is estimated at a minimum of 6 billion US dollars is growing rapidly and also contributes to the global dissemination of new pathogens and emerging diseases. Therefore, a better understanding of diseases present in wildlife and their effects on wildlife, domestic animals and humans is of key importance to develop control measures.”

For further information go to http://www.oie.int/