The World Organisation for Animal Health is deeply saddened of learning of the untimely passing of Dr. Caroline Planté, in the early hours of 28 January 2026, in Paris, France, after a long battle with cancer, which she vowed to win, but it wasn’t to be in the end.
A French veterinarian (Toulouse vet school, 1998) and public servant – “I had the opportunity to share a year of training at the National School for Veterinary Services (ENSV) with Caroline and appreciated her outstanding professional and personal qualities – Caroline worked in veterinary public health in France until she was seconded by the French Cooperation to support the development of the newly established OIE Regional Representation for Africa, in Bamako, Mali, shouldering Dr Samba Sidibe, the then Regional Representative”, recalls Dr Emmanuelle Soubeyran, current WOAH Director General.
Caroline (right) in discussion with Susan Corning during a General Session in Paris.
Upon her arrival at the veterinary compound in Sotuba in January 2005, she found an international team of epidemiologists working under the auspices of the African Union on the final phases of the eradication of Rinderpest (Pan-African Programme for the Control of Epizootics, PACE). One of the tasks she successfully completed in those formative years was designing and developing the first regional website, which is still active today at rr-africa.woah.org .
A few months after her return to the Ministry services in Paris in October 2006, she was appointed in January 2007 as a French secondee to OIE, serving as Sub-Regional Representative to the newly established office in Brussels, Belgium. A position she held until December 2011. Then followed her secondment to, and eventually recruitment by, the World Bank Group in Washington DC, in October 2011.
Caroline Plante (on the right), whilst working in Mali, visiting Dogon country with friends and colleagues IIIIIIII Caroline Plante (à droite), alors qu'elle travaillait au Mali, en visite dans le pays Dogon avec des amis et des collègues.
Caroline Planté taking a break during a Project Steering Committee Meeting of the PACE Project in Nairobi, Kenya
In July 2017, Caroline and her family then transferred to Dakar, Senegal, still for the World Bank (meanwhile, she had been assigned as Senior Agricultural Specialist). It is in this capacity that she became the technical lead of the World Bank for the new Regional Support Project for Pastoralism in the Sahel (PRAPS), in part implemented by the same OIE and then WOAH in… Bamako!
Caroline spent the last three years in her home country of France, undergoing treatment.
Those who crossed Caroline’s path will remember her quirky sense of humour, humility, gentle tone of voice, outstanding professionalism and eloquence. We will miss her!
Our thoughts go to her husband, Alain, and their two children, Vincent and Juliette, who lost their mother too soon.
