ICAWC 2013 Barcelona, Spain - Paula Boyden's presentation on Moving pets across countries

1. Moving Pets Across
Countries
Paula Boyden BVetMed MRCVS
Dogs Trust

2. Pet Travel Scheme 2000-2011
•
•
•
•
•
Microchip/Transponder
Vaccinate
Blood test after 30d
Issue Passport
Entry to the UK 6mths after date of
successful blood test
• Tick and tapeworm 24-48h before entry

3. Pet Travel Scheme 2012 
•
•
•
•
•
Microchip
Vaccinate
Issue Passport
Travel 3 weeks after vaccination
Tapeworm treatment 1-5 days before
entry to the UK
• No tick treatment

4. So what does this mean?
• Blood test no longer required
– ‘Failures’?
• 3 week wait
• Age of entry into the UK
• Extended period for tapeworm treatment

5. No Rabies Blood Test
• 2000 – 2011 almost 12 years of rabies
serology data
• Large breeds of dog
• 1-7 years > Over 7 years > less than 1
year
• Some may never pass

6. 3 Week Wait
• Incubation period of rabies typically 1-3
months but can be much longer
• Incubation period depends on:
– Age of bitten individual
– Distance from bite site to spinal cord or brain
– Variant of the virus
– Amount of virus introduced

7. Age of Entry
• Cannot vaccinate against rabies until 3
months of age
• 2000 – 2011
– 3 months + 30 days + 6 month wait
– Min age 10 months
• 2012 
– 3 months + 3 week wait
– Min age 15 weeks

8. Numbers of Pets Travelling
2011
Cats
Dogs
Ferrets
2012
%
increase
8,712
88,661
77
97,450
14,587
142,665
95
157,347
67%
61%
23%
61%
Number of pets entering GB taken from the PETS database
(courtesy of Defra)
8

9. Dog Profile
• Puppies for sale
– Some moving commercially
– Many puppies bought in markets in small
numbers and brought to the UK for sale
– The carrying vehicle may declare some, but
not all dogs
• Adult dogs for rescue / rehoming

10. Does Age Matter?
• near 400% increase* in the number of
‘illegals’ in 2012
–
–
–
–
changes to rules 01/01/12
profit to be made
Unknown quantities
Lack of intel management
*City of London Corporation

11. Non Compliance
• 417 pets identified as illegal landings were seized
by Trading Standards in Jan-Nov 2012, compared
with 127 for the same period in 2011
• Non-compliant pets must stay in quarantine until
they meet EU animal health requirements

12. Rabies in the EU
1998
2008
Around 200 rabies cases in the EU in 2011
compared with 5,000 in 2001
and around 13,000 in 1991
12

13. What Checks are Made?
• 100% checks at ports
– Embarkation at seaports
– Arrival at airports
• Subsequent 5-10% quality control checks
by AHVLA (Government Agency)
IF THEY ARE DECLARED

14. How do we know if an animal
has entered the country
legally?
• Permanent identification and registration
– Central reunification number
– Register at local and European level
(Euoropetnet)
– Backtrack
• Focus for lobbying in the EU

15. Should we be concerned?
…of the eleven puppies we had here five
of them were Bulldogs; two of them were
paid for by the person who imported them.
He took them home on Tuesday (one of
them had a bad cherry eye) within three
hours he had them both up on the internet
for sale

16. Tapeworm:
Echinococcus multilocularis

17. Echinococcus multilocularis

18. Diseases associated with
Travelling Pets
•
•
•
•
Babesia (Tick)
Ehrlichia (Tick)
Dirofilaria (Mosquito)
Leishmania (Sandfly)

19. Babesia
• A protozoon
• Lives inside the red blood
cells
• AKA piroplasmosis

20. Ehrlichia
• Affects the platelets (important in blood
clotting
• Can lead to bleeding e.g. nose bleeds,
during surgery

21. Dirofilaria: Heartworm
• Transmitted by mosquitos
• Microscopic form, microfilariae injected
into blood stream
• Mature adult worms locate in the heart
• Topical medication that will kill
microfilariae can be used to prevent
disease

22. Leishmaniasis
• Caused by the protozoan parasite
Leishmania infantum
• Transmitted by Phlebotomus spp
sandflies
• Potentially zoonotic

23. Leishmaniasis: distribution

24. Other Diseases
Reported via
DACTARI
Diagnosed by Acarus
Babesia
19
165
(2 untravelled)
Ehrlichia
21
172
(3 untravelled)
Leishmania
66
357
(2 untravelled)
(3 unknown travel
history)
106
694
TOTAL

25. Moving Animals for Adoption
• Which dogs?
– Will a street dog really fit in with a domestic
home environment?
• Do it legally
– Commercial movement vs PETS
• Do it responsibly
– Disease status, especially if non-endemic in
country of destination (?test / treat)

26. Disease Considerations
• What infectious diseases are prevalent in
the country of origin?
www.cvbd.org
• Are there appropriate tests available?
• Are these diseases endemic in the
destination country?
• Naïve population
• Should we risk introducing the disease into this?
• Or do we test and then put preventive measures
in place?

27. Leishmaniasis
• Sandfly transmitted
• Prevalent around the Med basin
• PCR test available
– Before travel
– 6 months later
• Can manage but not cure
• Zoonotic

28. Other Diseases
• Dirofilaria (Heartworm)
– Regular treatment required to prevent clinical
disease
• Babesia
– Tick prevention
• Ehrlichia
– Tick prevention

29. Source Country
• The dogs that are relocated/rehomed will
benefit greatly
• What is left?
– Improve the resources for those that are left?
– Will they reproduce further to fill the void?
– Population control
– Education
– Lobbying - locally / EU (Eurogroup)

30. In Summary
• Changes to PETS has made it much
easier to move animals across borders
– Traceability
• Welfare implications
– Breeding
– Transport
– Wellbeing
• It may not be just the animals that are
being moved