International Horse Movement in Asia and the Pacific - WOAH

Region :

Asia and the Pacific

Supported by

World Organisation for Animal Health

Introduction

The Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE) has started a new initiative in support of the International Horse Movement in the Asia and Pacific region. This initiative builds on previous achievements that were made over the past decade of collaboration between WOAH and the International Horse Sports Confederation (IHSC).

Over the past decade, two key events brought the topic of international horse movement into the spotlight:

Regional workshop for Asia, Far East and Oceania for the facilitation of international competition horse movement in Hong Kong (Feb 2014)

Sub-regional workshop on the temporary international movements of competition horses (Oct 2019)

During these events, presented and discussed were concepts developed by WOAH, such as Equine Disease Free Zones (EDFZ), the “high health, high performance” horse (TAHC Chapter 4.17), specific and important equine diseases, the need to develop novel vaccines, and the need for harmonised import health certificates. Regional roadmaps were developed by the three key partners, i.e. the Veterinary Services, the FEI, and racing associations.

“International Horse Movement” project in Asia and the Pacific

Considering that the region will host important events such as the Asian Games and the Asian Championships in 2023 and 2024 respectively, it is important to bring together the public and the private sector to facilitate smooth operations in line with international regulations. Our office is receiving support from the government of China to further develop roadmaps after a period of lessened activity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The project started on 1st October 2022 and will run for 1 year with the option of extension for another year. The main expected outcomes are as follows:

Outcome 1：Developing a regional coordination mechanism for international horse movement between the public and private sectors;
Outcome 2：Developing a capacity-building program on equine diseases, WOAH concepts (EDFZ, HHP, Zoning) and emergency preparedness for emerging equine diseases;
Outcome 3：Assessment of laboratory capacity to diagnose equine diseases and building networks between public and private laboratories;
Outcome 4：Facilitation of international sport horse movement through harmonized import health certificates;
Outcome 5：Presentation of project outputs to partners during Regional Workshops /meetings.

Project consultant and coordinators

Dr. Susanne Münstermann, German Veterinarian and lead of the WOAH “international horse movement” initiative from 2012 to 2016 at WOAH headquarters, consultant to the Indonesian Veterinary Services for the establishment of an EDFZ for the Asian Games 2018, has been contracted as the consultant to coordinate this project.

Dr. Peng Li and Dr. Ami Kitagawa from the RRAP office will support Dr. Münstermann to facilitate the project.