In March, the OIE announced that the 2020 General Session, and the new and revised chapters set to be adopted at the Session, will be postponed until 2021. Instead, there will be a one day meeting among Delegates to the OIE to deal with administrative matters. Because of this, the chapter on the welfare of egg laying hens, which has been under development for a number of years already, will not be adopted until May 2021 at the earliest. The chapter will be open for another round of comments from member countries and stakeholders, as will all chapters that had been slated for adoption at the 2020 General Session. The report of the February Code Commission outlines the decisions and actions for each chapter.

For more information about COVID-19 and the OIE's response, see the OIE's Q&A on COVID-19.