OUR ACTION

OIE-WAHIS:

for a deeper

understanding

of sanitary events

To ensure OIE-WAHIS new animal health information platform will address Members’ needs appropriately, the OIE has included them throughout the renovation process. Dr Jennifer Saurina’s team in Switzerland was directly involved every step of the way.

Dr Jennifer Saurina
International Affairs Advisor at the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO), Federal Department of Home Affairs.
OIE National Focal Point – Animal Disease Notification

SWITZERLAND

In what ways did your team contribute to the development of OIE-WAHIS?

J. S. We are part of the strategic advisory committee and our notification experts are also part of the key user committee. Testing the system enables us to comment every step of the way and provide useful feedback on the tool. From the start of the development of OIE-WAHIS, what was very important to us was to have a platform that allows better extraction of data. We wanted to be able to use all the information available on the platform and to have better interoperability between OIE-WAHIS and other systems.
OIE-WAHIS, animal health information platform

The OIE−WAHIS platform will provide high-quality epidemiological and geospatial data to fuel in-depth analysis. The mapping system will be optimised.

We collect information from other countries to have an overall live picture of the animal health situation worldwide.”

Dr Jennifer Saurina
OIE National Focal Point –
Animal Disease Notification

How are you using the information contained on WAHIS today?

J. S. We upload information on the notification system and we use the alert device for our own early warning system. We collect information from other countries to have an overall live picture of the animal health situation worldwide. In the future, making data extraction available will be a key asset for research purposes. During a crisis, it could also help us gain better understanding of particular situations.

How will OIE-WAHIS help you improve animal health management in Switzerland?

J. S. To tackle animal diseases, we need transparency and a transdisciplinary approach. Crossing veterinary data with meteorological or social data will help us determine influential factors on the dissemination of diseases. For instance, OIE-WAHIS will help to better monitor the spread of animal diseases and their potential link with movement of populations.

Communicate to prevent African swine fever

The new OIE-WAHIS is coming soon!