IS YOUR PET PREPARED FOR TRAVEL

Ask your vet to microchip your pet dog or cat with an ISO (International Standards Organisation) approved microchip and at the same time (or later) to vaccinate your pet with an inactivated rabies vaccine. Details of the microchip and vaccine, including the batch number, should be recorded on your pet’s veterinary record.

Approximately 30 days later the vet should take a blood sample and send it to one of the DEFRA approved laboratories to check that the vaccine has taken effectively. (The check could be done later, but 30 days is the optimum for good result.) There are 17 approved laboratories in various countries as well as two in the UK.

The result will be sent back to your vet. In order to pass, the titre (antibody) level must be 0.5 or more. (In the unlikely event that it is less, the vaccination and test must be repeated.)

Your vet will then issue you with a certificate confirming all the above - in the UK this is called The Pet Travel Scheme Re-Entry Certificate. It is valid for the life of the rabies vaccine, so keep your rabies vaccine up to date and a new certificate will be issued without the need for further blood tests.

Six months from the taking of a successful blood test you will be able to enter or re-enter the UK from Western Europe and 28 other countries including Australia, Canada, USA, Japan and Singapore.

Pets must be treated for ticks and for the echinococcus parasite by a qualified vet who will record this on the issuing country's official certificate not less than 24 hours and not more than 48 hours before entry into the UK. A letter from the Vet will not do. The treatment must be recorded on that country's official certificate. We are trying to secure changes in this very awkward timetable, which is being rigidly enforced.

On entering the UK you must therefore have two official certificates; one for the microchip, rabies vaccine and blood test; the second for treatment against ticks and parasites. You will also have to sign a residence declaration form - provided by the travel operator who is carrying out the checking. It simply confirms that the pet has not been outside the approved countries in the previous six months.

COSTS:

Microchip: Should be in the region of £25.00

Vaccine: Varies according to vet but again approximately £30

Blood test: We know that the blood testing laboratory at Weybridge (VLA) charge £49.50 per test. Therefore anything in addition is that levied by the vet. Providing the rabies vaccination is kept up to date the blood test will not have to be repeated. Should there be a break between rabies vaccines a further blood test would have to be taken and then a period of 6 months allowed before re-entry to the UK would be permitted.

THEREFORE: Microchip and blood-test are one-off costs but the rabies vaccination is a yearly or 2 yearly cost depending on the vaccine used.