World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Member Countries mandated the organization to take the lead internationally on animal welfare and, as the international reference organization for animal health, to elaborate recommendations and guidelines covering animal welfare practices, reaffirming that animal health is a key component of animal welfare. However, there can be impediments to the ability of the OIE to assure worldwide adherence the codes they develop; especially in the developing world. In 2011 to respond to this issue, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the OIE established a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen cooperation in all fields of mutual interest, including animal welfare. The ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies and the work of preparing ISO standards is usually carried out through ISO Technical Committees. The ISO took on this work to help facilitate the international adoption of OIE codes, such as those dealing with animal welfare, through the private sector implementing seller or buyer requirements. The ISO committee structure is broken down into Technical Committees (TCs) and the ISO assigned this work on animal welfare to TC34 (Food Products) with the creation of a Working Group (WG) 16. To participate in WG16, experts from the United States formed a Technical Advisory Group that is chaired by Dr. Morris of the United States Department of Agriculture. WG16 is currently working toward the development of the ISO’s first Technical Specification (TS) in this area of animal welfare and plans for it to be complete by the end of 2015. The objective of this work is to have the private sector use this TS to not only further the international adoption of the OIE codes, but serve to better the living conditions of animals raised for food around the world while not impeding the international trade of animal products. This presentation will update attendees on the progress being made by the ISO in this important area.