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On May 22, 2026, Colombia received two simultaneous health certifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) during the 93rd World Assembly of Delegates held in Paris. The international organization certified that the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina is a Classical Swine Fever (CSF)-free zone, and that the departments of Amazonas and Vaupés, as well as the municipality of Miraflores in the department of Guaviare, constitute a foot-and-mouth disease-free zone without vaccination. Both designations are based on documentation submitted by Colombia’s delegate to the WOAH and are valid under the organization’s Terrestrial Animal Health Code.
The department of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina has been granted official status as a CSF-free zone. CSF is one of the most significant notifiable swine diseases affecting international trade in pigs and pig products. This recognition certifies that Colombia has documented to WOAH the absence of viral circulation on the islands, the existence of active surveillance, and the response capacity of its veterinary services. During the same session, areas of Bolivia received identical recognition for this disease.
Regarding foot-and-mouth disease, WOAH approved the “free of disease without vaccination” status for an area encompassing the departments of Amazonas and Vaupés and the municipality of Miraflores in Guaviare. The certification confirms that the epidemiological situation in that region has not changed and that vaccination is not necessary. Pigs, as ungulates susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease virus, benefit directly from this recognition: the official absence of the disease in a large area of the Colombian Amazon strengthens conditions for access to international markets with stricter sanitary requirements.
The two recognitions were announced as part of the 30th anniversary of WOAH's official health status system, a mechanism that, since 1996, has linked disease control to access to export markets under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS).
May 22, 2026/ Porkcolombia and WOAH/ Colombia.
https://www.woah.org/es/inicio/
