OIE standards for vaccines and future trends.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), sets out international standards for vaccines in the Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals (mammals, birds and bees). The texts are drafted by experts then sent for scientific peer review and for comment by all OIE Member Countries, thus achieving a consensus at the point of adoption. Introductory chapters in the Terrestrial Manual provide general principles of laboratory management and vaccine production, and disease-specific chapters provide detailed standards for vaccines for the OIE listed diseases. Issues that the OIE Biological Standards Commission are currently addressing or will address in the near future include the matching of vaccine strains to currently circulating infectious agents, the use of companion diagnostic tests to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals, the development of vaccine banks, and the application of DNA technology to vaccine design and production.