Previous IVBW meetings
The first meeting was held on October 16-18, 1991 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Participants from Australia, Canada, England, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the USA presented their institutes and discussed minimal common safety features.
The second Workshop was held at Geelong in Australia in March 10-12, 1993. Topics at that workshop were: Common problems with transportation, discussion of the possibility to develop an international risk classification scheme.
The third Workshop was held at Mittelhäusern, Switzerland in May 23-27, 1994. Topics were: Agents lists, risk groups and biosafety levels and vaccination policy.
The fourth Workshop was held at Valdeolmos, Spain in June 5-9, 1995. Topics were: Agent classification and test and certification of containment facilities. A definition of four risk groups for animal pathogens was agreed.
The fifth Workshop was held at Winnipeg Canada in October 15-18, 1996. Topics were: Mission statements and goals of the group and facility maintenance and monitoring protocols and standard operating procedures.
The sixth Workshop was held at Ames USA in June 8-11, 1998. Topics were: Design, construction and operation of veterinary containment laboratories.
The seventh Workshop was held in Paris France in June 12-16, 2000. Topics were: Review of general concepts for design and construction of veterinary biosafety facilities, recommendations for safe operational procedures for use in veterinary animal containment facilities.
The 8th workshop took place in Upper Hutt, New Zealand (18 - 20 March 2002).
The 9th workshop was held in Panama City, Republic of Panama (6 - 8 October 2003).
The 10th workshop was held at the National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden (10 -12 May 2005).
The 11th workshop was held in Singapore hosted by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (27-30 November 2006).
The 12th workshop was hosted by SENASA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (22-25 April 2008).
The 13th workshop with a focus of design qualifications was hosted by the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa (24-28 October 2009).
The 14th workshop was hosted jointly by the Statens Serum Institute and the Division of Virology at the National Veterinary Institute in Lindholm, Copenhagen (23-26 May 2011).
The 15th workshop was held in Pretoria, hosted by the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (November 2012).
The 16th workshop celebrated the completion of the new main laboratory at The Pirbright Institute (June 2014) cohosted by The Pirbright Institute, The Animal and Plant Health Agency and Public Health England.
The 17th workshop was back in Geelong 22 years after the second workshop hosted by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (November 2015).
The 18th workshop was held in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, hosted by Lanagro MG – Laboratorio Nacional Agropecuario (13-15 June 2017)
The 19th workshop was held at the National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Diseases in Upper Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand (19-21 February 2019)
The 20th workshop was held at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) in Lelystad, The Netherlands (20-22 September 2023).