BVA ADVICE NOTE
PET TRAVEL RULES CHANGES AND GUIDANCE ON RABIES VACCINATION OF
PRACTICE STAFF
Background
The BVA believes that it is vital that any controls on animal movements are proportionate to the
risks,i and notes that due to a highly successful vaccination programme in wildlife in mainland
Europe, research carried out by Defra reveals that the risk of introducing rabies to the UK under the
new rules for the non-commercial movement of pet animals is very low.ii The full VLA quantitative
risk assessment from 2010 is available here. This document also provides a useful summary of the
changes to the pet travel scheme since January 2012.
Along with the substantially reduced level of risk to the public in recent years as the incidence of
rabies in domestic and wild animal populations in the EU and other countries has decreased,
treatments for pets and humans have become far more effective. The EU pet movement system
has been highly successful, demonstrated by the fact that, with many hundreds of thousands of pet
movements across and into the EU, there has not been a single case of rabies associated with the
legal movement of pets under the scheme since the system was introduced in 2004.iii BVA
welcomes the continuing requirement for all pets to be vaccinated against rabies before travel.
Public Health England advice on pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis for humans
The government currently recommends that pre-exposure immunisation with rabies vaccine is only
offered to certain groups of people, and this does not include veterinary practice staff unless they
regularly handle bats, or those who regularly handle imported animals in the course of their work
(for example at animal quarantine centres, zoos, ports e.g. certain HM Revenue and Customs
officers). The government provides more detail in their publication “Immunisation against Infection
Disease” (‘the Green book’), which also gives information on post-exposure management and
advice on risk assessment. A pdf of the section on rabies is available online here. The government
also regularly updates their webpage on rabies, which offers FAQs, guidelines, links to articles and
a list of rabies risks by country as well as other resources.
Changes on UK vaccination policy are made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation (JCVI) and it is this body which will decide if the pre-exposure immunisation
guidelines should be changed. No indications have been received to suggest that this is necessary,
and pre-exposure prophylaxis is not routine practice in Western European countries such as France
and Germany.
Other resources
- The BVA pet travel current issue page includes a member briefing on the changes to pet travel
rules and example client scenarios.
i
http://www.bva.co.uk/activity_and_advice/Pettravel.aspx
ii
http://www.bva.co.uk/news/2386.aspx