New rules for movement of non-commercial animals within the EU

Comments

One response to “New rules for movement of non-commercial animals within the EU”

1. 

   3 January 2015

   Tunde

   The news is obviously that no EU member state is allowed to require more than the valid rabies vaccination.
   “When travelling, the pet owner must ensure that the rabies vaccination in the passport is valid or renew the pet’s vaccination. Some Member States might also choose to include additional information in the passport about other vaccinations and the animal’s medical history to make veterinary checks easier, but this additional information is not required by EU law.”
   (As far as I know for example France required some other vaccinations as well in the past.)
   So I suppose the current requirements are:
   1. first microchip the pet
   2. do the rabies vaccination
   3. issue the pet passport containing the above information
   4. wait 21 days
   5. travel
   Am I right?
   However they do not write anything about the validity of the 3-year vaccines.
   Hungary for example did not accept the 3 year rabies vaccine, meaning that a Hungarian vet was only allowed to issue a one year validity in the pet passport, even if the manufacturer of the vaccine guaranteed a 3-year validity which was accepted by most of the EU member states.
   (a German vet was allowed to issue a 3 year validity for the same rabies vaccine).
   I hope that this changed now… as yearly vaccination of dogs and cats against rabies is a health risk and unnecessary as well.
   There are good 3-year vaccines against rabies. This should be reflected in the pet passport when the pet is given this kind of rabies vaccine!
   (even if a yearly rabies vaccination is a better business for some vets…….)