World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)
The need to fight animal diseases at global level led to the creation of the Office International des Epizooties through the international Agreement signed on January 25th 1924. In May 2003 the Office became the World Organisation for Animal Health but kept its historical acronym WOAH.
The WOAH is the intergovernmental organisation responsible for improving animal health worldwide.
It is recognized as a reference organisation by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in 2017 has a total of 181 Member Countries. The WOAH maintains permanent relations with other international and regional organisations and has Regional and sub-regional Offices on every continent.