It's been a busy start to the year for Dr Beth Cookson, Australia's Chief Veterinary Officer, and her office as they continue to lead Australian representation in key international animal health fora.
From 31 March to 3 April 2025, Dr Cookson led the Australian delegation to Scotland to the annual Animal Health Quadrilateral (Quads) Alliance meeting. This brought together the Chief Veterinary Officers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States to collaborate on international animal health matters, including coordinating strategies for the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)'s 92nd General Session of the World Assembly of Delegates held from 25 to 29 May 2025.
The annual WOAH General Session in France brings together representatives from over 180 Member Countries. It is the final decision point for international animal health standards and other matters relating to global collaboration. The journey to adoption of a new or updated international standard can take months or years.
Leading up to the General Session, Dr Cookson attended preparatory meetings, including the WOAH Regional Commission for Asia and the Pacific, to consolidate regional voting positions and interventions. As a representative of the WOAH Governance Review Committee (GRC), she also conveyed Australian and regional interests in meetings to reform WOAH's governing texts and support its ongoing performance.
These efforts ensured that Australia's strategies, interventions, and voting positions were refined and, where possible, supported by other WOAH Members. At this year's General Session, standards were adopted on important diseases such as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, African horse sickness, Megalocytivirus and Gyrodactylus salaris. These outcomes are favourable to Australia's agricultural industries.
This year also featured a forum on vaccines and vaccinations, encouraging conversation on the barriers to vaccine usage in disease prevention and control. Australia contributed to the writing group for recommendations to help WOAH and its Members improve vaccine adoption.
Dr Cookson also worked with the other GRC members from Asia and the Pacific to develop a joint intervention to elevate the importance and encourage participation in the review of WOAH's governing texts, formally proposed by China and delivered on behalf of the region by Singapore . This was followed by the adoption of the Governance Review Committee's multi-year work program.
Australia's influence at WOAH was supported through the participation of leaders from government, industry and animal and wildlife health organisations as part of the Australian delegation. Australian officers also engaged in 14 bilateral meetings with various trading partners to progress trade matters and further international partnerships.
The work for Dr Cookson and her office now continues as they progress outcomes from the meetings and continually look to support robust international animal health policies into the future.
