WOAH Africa

27/09/2026

From Plan to Endorsement: Tanzania’s WOAH-Recognized Rabies Control Programme

In May 2025, Tanzania became the first country in Eastern Africa to receive WOAH endorsement for its dog-mediated rabies control programme.
The endorsement marked an important milestone in years of work bringing communities, veterinary and health professionals, government, the private sector and other partners together around a national approach to rabies control.
But endorsement is not the finish line. In Tanzania, it helped build renewed momentum around efforts already underway to eliminate dog-mediated human rabies by 2030.

By June 2025, the country had launched a national mass animal vaccination campaign, with more than USD 10 million in government funding allocated for dog vaccination, alongside 100,000 rabies vaccine doses donated by WOAH and technical support for surveillance and reporting.
The endorsement also strengthened coordination between animal health, human health and the private sector, reinforcing the One Health approach needed to sustain progress.
From endorsement to action, what has changed in Tanzania’s rabies control efforts?
Watch Dr Benezeth Lutege Malinda, Director of Veterinary Services and WOAH Delegate for Tanzania, reflect on the progress since the endorsement. WATCH FULL VIDEO: https://youtu.be/yHM4LAUxsgI

26/09/2026

World Rabies Day 2026, Beyond the Needle: Namibia explores Oral Rabies Vaccination.

Mass dog vaccination remains the cornerstone of preventing dog-mediated rabies. But reaching the coverage needed to interrupt transmission can be difficult when dogs are free-roaming, semi-owned, or simply impossible to catch and handle safely and these are often the very dogs at highest risk.

That is the gap Namibia is exploring.
Oral rabies vaccination (ORV) delivers the vaccine through an attractive bait rather than a needle, offering a complementary way to reach dogs that conventional, injectable campaigns may miss. ORV is designed to extend protection to dogs conventional campaigns cannot safely access, closing a coverage gap that persists no matter how well-run a traditional campaign is.

WOAH, together with FAO and WHO, has supported the development of guidance on how ORV can be assessed and integrated into national dog rabies control programmes, alongside international standards designed to ensure vaccine safety before any bait-delivered approach is deployed in the field.

In this video, Dr Reinhold Haimbodi discusses Namibia’s experience with oral rabies vaccination and how partnerships and innovation are supporting the goal of eliminating dog-mediated human rabies.

Watch the discussion to learn more about Namibia’s approach.

How can vaccination reach free-roaming and difficult-to-handle dogs...

16/09/2026

Mark your calendars! This year on 28 September, it is time for our communities to be Stronger Together! The World Rabies Day, 2026 theme calls on all stakeholders to strengthen partnerships and align efforts across human and animal health systems.
When we work together, we can make a rabies-free future a reality for everyone! Read more on our World Organisation for Animal Health website. https://rr-africa.woah.org/en/our-mission/contributing-to-the-elimination-of-dog-mediated-human-rabies-deaths-in-africa/

31/08/2026

Check out World Organisation for Animal Health Knowledge sharing on Disease Monitoring and Surveillance in Wildlife. ZOOSUSRY.

27/08/2026

Zoning and compartmentalisation:
When disease risks exist, how can countries continue to facilitate safe trade? This is where approaches such as zoning and compartmentalisation become important. During the workshop, participants are exploring how these approaches can be applied to poultry meat trade, including the practical requirements needed to demonstrate effective disease prevention and control.

The conversation goes beyond the concept itself. Participants are considering biosecurity, surveillance, veterinary oversight, certification and the responsibilities of different actors in maintaining the health status of a defined zone or compartment. Experiences from poultry production systems are helping connect World Organisation for Animal Health standards with what happens in practice. For countries seeking greater access to international markets, the ability to demonstrate that animal-health risks are being effectively managed can be critical.

26/08/2026

Disease risks and the broiler value chain:
For poultry producers, animal health and trade go hand in hand. Diseases such as High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) and Newcastle Disease can have implications far beyond the farm, including production and international trade. At the World Organisation for Animal Health workshop in Nairobi, participants are examining how science-based sanitary measures and risk-based approaches can help manage these risks in the poultry meat trade.
The discussions are looking across the value chain—from day-old chicks and broilers to dressed poultry and offal—and considering the role of surveillance, biosecurity, certification and veterinary oversight. Poultry meat also brings wider considerations, including bacterial contamination during harvesting and processing, food safety, veterinary medicine residues and antimicrobial resistance. Understanding these interconnected risks is essential to building systems that can provide confidence in the safety of poultry products moving across borders. CodexAlimentarius Kenchic Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) State Department for Livestock Development.

25/08/2026

What does it take to facilitate safe trade in poultry meat?
For Africa's poultry sector, expanding trade opportunities means being able to demonstrate that animal-health risks are being effectively managed and that international sanitary requirements are being met. This week in Nairobi, World Organisation for Animal Health is bringing together Veterinary Services, poultry industry representatives and other stakeholders for a practical workshop focused on facilitating safe international trade in poultry meat.

This training takes a commodity-focused approach, using poultry meat to help participants put World Organisation for Animal Health standards into practice. Over three days, participants will explore risk-based trade approaches, sanitary measures, veterinary certification, disease zoning, compartmentalisation, biosecurity and the challenges of accessing export markets. Kenchic CodexAlimentarius Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) State Department for Livestock Development. -IBAR

11/08/2026

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has donated about 100,000 doses of rabies vaccines to Botswana over the past three to four years as part of efforts to control and eventually eliminate the disease.

06/08/2026

Animal diseases do not stop at borders. Neither should our efforts to prevent them. Transboundary animal diseases, such as foot and mouth disease (FMD), which are exotic to many countries, can spread rapidly across countries, threatening food security, livelihoods, trade and economies. No country can manage these risks in isolation.

That is why investing in preparedness matters. Strong animal health systems help to respond efficiently to outbreaks and to prevent them. Prevention reduces the likelihood and impact of disease incursions, lowers response costs, minimises disruptions to production and trade, and helps countries build long-term resilience. Through international standards, global disease reporting via WAHIS, scientific expertise and support to Veterinary Services, World Organisation for Animal Health helps countries detect outbreaks earlier, respond faster and strengthen their capacity to prevent and control transboundary animal diseases.

28/07/2026

A Regional Capacity Building Workshop on Advancing National PPR Eradication Programmes and the Meeting of the Regional Advisory Groups (RAGs), organised by the Pan-African PPR Secretariat (PAPS), hosted by AU-IBAR in collaboration with World Organisation for Animal Health and Government of Ethiopia is currently ongoing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the financial support of the . 88 experts from 44 African countries, representing both Anglophone and Francophone Member States, will work together to strengthen surveillance, vaccination strategies, national strategic planning, and regional coordination, key pillars for accelerating the eradication of PPR across Africa. The workshop will foster knowledge sharing, harmonise regional approaches, strengthen partnerships, and advance coordinated action towards the shared vision of a PPR-free Africa.