You are here:

Consultation on veterinary checks on rabies susceptible animals

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Assembly Government and Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (Northern Ireland) have launched a joint consultation to seek views on possible changes to import checks on rabies-susceptible animals from countries outside the EU.

Under current controls, on arrival into the country, most rabies-susceptible animals are securely transported to quarantine premises where they undergo a six month programme of testing and monitoring. The Commission proposes that consignments of animals are checked at the border before being transported to the quarantine premises.  This may lead to a reduction in the entry points for certain rabies susceptible animals.

The consultation is only commercial consignments of animals and unaccompanied pets and does not cover quarantine or licensing conditions.

We are seeking views on three options:
To continue with the current policy
To check zoo animals and commercial pets at the border, or
To check all rabies susceptible animals at the border.
We are also asking for comments on any additional impacts of each option that have not been identified in the impact assessment.

The consultation package consists of

The deadline for responses to this consultation is 20 July 2009

Further Information

Page published: 27 April 2009