· Dogs Corner » Adult Healthcare » EU Pet Passport ·
It is now possible to bring your dog on holiday to the EU but it does require forward planning. The pet owner must complete a complex process of microchipping, vaccinating for rabies and blood sampling before a passport is issued. Then 6 months must elapse before the pet can re enter the country. Also a visit to the vet prior to traveling in and out of Ireland is necessary.
How to get an EU Pet Passport in Ireland.
Step One:
Your pet must be microchipped by your vet to provide identification.
Step Two:
Your vet should then complete the passport application form and return the form to the issuing authority (details on application form).
If you wish to have your pet’s photograph on its passport (this is optional), you should bring a photograph with you to your vet to attach to the application form. The photograph should be no bigger than 6cm x 4cm, should be clear and feature only the pet.
Step Three:
Your vet should then vaccinate your pet against rabies.
Step Four:
Once sufficient time has elapsed following vaccination (usually about a month but your vet will advise you) your vet should do a blood test to confirm a sufficiently high level of rabies anti-bodies. If your pet fails this blood test, your vet will have to revaccinate and test again. This blood test is a requirement for re-entry into Ireland – if your pet will not be returning to Ireland the test may not need to be done.
Step Five:
Your pet’s passport, with certain details completed, will be sent out directly to your vet. When it is received your vet can then enter the details of the rabies vaccination and the blood test results.
Step Six:
A minimum of six months after the date of the successful blood test you are free to use your passport when bringing your pet back into Ireland if you are travelling from an eligible country on an approved carrier. This six month period must be spent only in eligible countries. Before you travel be sure to read “How to travel into Ireland with your Pet” as you must have your pet treated for tick and tapeworm shortly before entering Ireland.
You should always keep the rabies vaccination for your pet up to date. If you take care to have your pet re-vaccinated before the validity of the previous vaccination expires, you will never need to do the blood test again.
Responsibility for ensuring that a pet is compliant with the conditions of the system rests with the pet’s owner.
This is an opportunity for those who travel widely or those who have a house on the continent to bring their pet with them on holiday. It is also necessary for non Irish national who are returning home from Ireland with their pets to obtain a pet passport. For further queries please Contact Us.
How To Travel Into Ireland With Your Pet.
Conditions of Travel.
Under the EU passport system it is possible to bring accompanied pet dogs and cats into Ireland without the need to quarantine from a range of countries deemed low risk for rabies provided that certain conditions are met.
To be able to travel into Ireland with your pet you must be in a position to answer “YES” to ALL the following questions.
- Are you travelling directly from an eligible country? A list of qualifying countries is available from The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Food. If you are travelling from a country, which is not eligible for the passport system your pet must under go six months quarantine in Ireland. You should contact the Department of Agriculture to arrange an import licence.
- Are you travelling with an approved carrier? Check with Department of Agriculture for a list of approved carriers and for information about un-approved carriers.
- Is your pet over three months old? The system does not apply to pets under three months old.
- Will your pet be accompanied? The system does not apply to pets unaccompanied. Pets travelling under this system must be accompanied either by the owner or by a person responsible for the pet on behalf of the owner.
- Has you pet been micro-chipped? All pets must be identified by means of a microchip. NO other form of identification is acceptable. The microchip should comply with ISO standard 11784 or Annex A to ISO standard 11785 – if this is not the case you must carry your own scanner.
- Has you pet, following micro-chipping, been vaccinated against rabies? Subsequent to micro-chipping, your pet must have been vaccinated against rabies with an inactivated vaccine of at least one antigenic unit per dose (WHO standard) in a manner in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations. This vaccination must have been carried out in an eligible country.
- Has your pet been successfully blood tested? Subsequent to the first rabies vaccination (usually about a month later but your veterinarian will advise when your pet must be blood tested to confirm a neutralising antibody titration at least equal to 0.5IU/ml. This test must be carried out in a laboratory approved for this purpose. Your vet will have a list of approved laboratories. If you keep your rabies vaccinations up to date you will only have to do this blood test once. However, if there is any break in vaccination the test must be repeated. Blood sampling must have been carried out in an eligible country.
- Have you a passport/certificate completed by a veterinarian certifying to identification, vaccination, and blood test? If you are travelling from a European Union country, you must have an EU passport for your pet, fully completed, signed and stamped by a registered veterinarian. If you are travelling from an eligible country outside of the European Union you must have the “Veterinary Certificate for Domestic Dogs, Cats and Ferrets entering the European Community”. This Veterinary Certificate is available from your own Competent Authority or from the European Union website. However if you are travelling from a Non European country/territory it may be possible to use the EU passport instead of the certificate. For details please phone the helpline 1890 504 604.
- Has at least six months expired since a successful blood test?
- Has your pet been only in an eligible country during this six months? Your pet may enter Ireland only when at least six months has expired since a successful blood test. This provision is to ensure that your pet is not incubating rabies.
- Has your pet been treated for tick and tapeworm between 24 and 48 hours before check in at ferry terminal or airport? Between 24 and 48 hours before you check in for travel you must bring your pet to a registered veterinarian to be treated against tick and tapeworm. This is to prevent a risk of potentially serious disease entering Ireland. The tick treatment must be other than by a collar impregnated with acaricide. The tapeworm (echinococcus multilocularis) treatment must contain praziquantal as an active ingredient.
The veterinarian must complete the relevant sections of the passport / certificate, i.e. section IV (tick) and section VII (echinococcus), noting down the time of treatment as well as the date. If you are able to answer YES to all eleven questions above, your pet may enter Ireland without undergoing quarantine.
Tips for successful travel:
- Make sure your vet checks that the microchip can be successfully scanned following implantation.
- Make sure that all entries by your vet in the passport/certificate are legible and are properly signed, dated and stamped, and, in the case of tick/tapeworm treatment, that a time of treatment is entered. This document will be checked by transport company personnel, and any entry that is not clear may lead to a delay or to a refusal to allow your pet entry into Ireland.
- Use the checklist attached to this information.
- Talk to your ferry company or airline about their requirements.
- If you are uncertain about any aspect, use our helpline 1890 504 604.
Failures:
Your pet’s identification and all of the passport/certificate details will be checked by your carrier. In the case of ferry travel, these checks will take place in France, before embarkation. Airlines will do their checks at destination in the Irish airport.
The checks carried out by the carrier must establish that your pet complies with all of the conditions of the pet passport system before your pet is allowed entry into Ireland without quarantine. The carrier is carrying out checks on behalf of the Irish Government and have no discretion or room for manoeuvre whatsoever where any of the entry conditions are not met.
Please remember that preparing your pet correctly and meeting all of the conditions is your responsibility – no one else’s.
If your pet fails the check you will be informed of the reason for the failure.
If you were due to travel on a ferry your pet your pet will not be allowed to sail until such time as it can comply with the conditions. However, in certain circumstances, where this be arranged, your pet may be allowed sail with immediate transfer to detention in Ireland. Your pet will then be held in detention for up to seven hours approximately either until such time as it complies with the conditions (e.g. tick and tapeworm treatment administered) or until it is clear that it will not be possible to solve the problem in the short term. In this case your pet will be transferred to public quarantine or returned to its country of origin.
If you have travelled by air, your pet will be transferred into short term detention (up to 72 hours approximately) until such time as it complies with the conditions or until it is clear that it will not be possible to solve the problem in the short term, at which time your pet will be transferred to public quarantine or returned to its country of origin.
All costs associated with transfer, detention and quarantine must be met by the owner / accompanying person.
