COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) will open a liaison office on Oct. 1. The office will be based in the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, which is a unit within the Texas A&M Univ. System. The OIE recognized the Institute as an OIE Collaborating Centre in biological threat reduction in 2014.

The liaison will work toward “… increasing collaboration, establishing partnerships and maintaining donor relations with several US state agencies and departments as well as organizations based in the United States of America that have an interest in global animal health and animal welfare,” OIE said in a statement. The office also will offer support to the OIE headquarters in Paris to accomplish goals outlined in the organization’s Sixth Strategic Plan.

The Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases focuses on research, education and outreach to prevent, detect, mitigate and recover from emerging animal diseases, which may be introduced intentionally or through natural processes. It is the only center of this kind in OIE’s America’s region and the only OIE collaborating center within the Texas A&M Univ. System.