Concluding comments: OIE leadership, significant trends and future developments.

At the turn of the century, the Members of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) decided to include animal welfare in the OIE Strategic Plan for the period 2001 to 2005. This decision reflected the ever-increasing public, media, scientific and political interest in the subject over the previous 50 or so years. Global conferences on animal welfare, held in Paris (2004), Cairo (2008) and Kuala Lumpur (2012), have played a most important role in promoting dialogue between the various public and private-sector stakeholders, who have contributed, both directly and indirectly, to the impressive progress made since 2001 (1, 2, 3).