Working for public and animal health
Pet Travel Scheme (PETS)
The Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) allows dogs and cats to enter the UK from EU Member States and specific rabies-free countries, without having to undergo quarantine.
Blood testing
One condition of the scheme is that, after microchipping and vaccination, pets should undergo a blood test to determine the level of rabies neutralising antibodies.
The VLA is recognised under the scheme as being a laboratory authorised to carry out this test.
Rabies antibody testing at VLA
The test we offer is the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) recommended Fluorescent Antibody Virus Neutralisation (FAVN) test. Test Quality Assurance is confirmed by participation in bi-annual external proficiency assessments. As an additional assurance VLA's test has successfully gained United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation. This is to the exacting ISO 17025 quality standard.
Samples (preferably 1ml of serum or 2ml of clotted blood) should be sent to VLA as quickly as possible with the submission form:
To date, the majority of samples submitted to VLA have been sent from the United Kingdom but as the scheme has widened to more participating countries the number of samples from overseas has increased.