January 23, 2025 – The Global Alliance of Pet Food Associations (GAPFA) has shared that the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) recently updated the Terrestrial Animal Health Code at their 91st General Assembly to recognise dry, extruded petfood and heat-treated meat products (including petfood) in a hermetically sealed containers as a safe commodity with respect to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Rift Valley Fever virus (RVF) and African Swine Fever (ASF).
The WOAH Terrestrial Code is a comprehensive set of guidelines and standards aimed at ensuring the health and welfare of terrestrial animals. It provides a framework for countries to develop and implement effective animal health policies and practices and to facilitate safe international trade in animals and animal products, ensuring that health risks are minimised and that countries can protect their animal populations.
The recognition assures countries that dry, extruded petfood can be safely be traded regardless of disease outbreak status of the producing country or the country of origin of the raw materials. This recognition is the result of a thorough scientific evaluation and review of data which showed the processing of extruded dry petfood results in the production of a safe commodity with respect to ASF, RVD and FMD. WOAH had previously recognised heat-treated meat products (including petfood) in hermetically sealed containers with a F0 value of three or above as a safe commodity with respect to both ASF, RVF and FMD. With the updates to the Terrestrial Code, both extruded dry petfood and heat- treated wet petfood meeting the conditions specified are not considered a biosecurity risk for trade.
GAPFA works cooperatively with WOAH through their Memorandum of Understanding. GAPFA first announced a memorandum of understanding with WOAH (formerly OIE) in 2017, in which the organisations agreed to partner on relevant activities related to setting international standards in petfood safety. The global association maintains strategic partnerships with multiple organisations that share the common goals of promoting petfood safety and nutrition, pet wellbeing and the human-animal bond.
ASF, RVF and FMD join High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) as diseases that both dry, extruded petfood and heat-treated meat products (including petfood) in a hermetically sealed container are deemed safe commodities regardless of producing country disease status. This petfood can be traded internationally irrespective of the disease status of the exporting country. This means that even if an exporting country has cases of infection with HPAI, ASF, RVF or FMD, petfood meeting the standards in the Terrestrial Code can be traded safely.
“This recognition of extruded, dry and retorted wet petfood as a safe commodity with respect to African Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth Disease and Rift Valley Fever is a major milestone in assuring that this petfood can continue to be safely traded regardless of the disease outbreak status of a producing country”, stated Loretta Hunter, GAPFA President.
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