Pressure to harmonise with the rest of Europe means that in July 2010 we may lose the right to our extra border controls under the Pet Passport Scheme (PETS) derogation. The UK, along with Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Malta, currently has a battle to convince the EU Commission to retain extra safeguards against rabies and vector-borne diseases.
A joint BVA/BSAVA two-and-a-half-hour session was delivered on Friday 3 April 2009 at BSAVA Congress, and brought together a diverse audience, including interested parties from Sweden, Finland and Malta. The topic: balancing pet travel and disease control. The aim: to look at the science behind the threats of pet travel and disease in the UK and to encourage informed debate.
Dr Sue Shaw looked at the incidence of vector-borne diseases in the UK; Professor William Ollier delved into the genetics behind immunology and whether serology testing is necessary after rabies vaccination; Dr Dylis Morgan (of the Health Protection Agency) and Dr Phil Craig looked at the risk of Echinococcus multilocularis (tapeworm) to public health; and Nigel Gibbens, Chief Veterinary Officer for Defra, explained the Government’s position on the end of the derogation.
At the moment the UK requires six-month quarantine for animals coming from unlisted countries, or a six-month wait for incubating diseases to show themselves before travel. This also involves serological test to check for rabies immunity. We also require tick and tapeworm treatment.
Under harmonisation with the rest of the EU, the wait time would be reduced to 21 days for listed countries, or four months and serological testing for unlisted countries. There would be no tick or tapeworm treatment required.
There seemed to be a general consensus from the speakers that extra controls for rabies should be retained. Professor Ollier outlined studies, which showed varying immune responses to the rabies vaccine in different breeds of dog. Although it was a very small percentage of failure of vaccination, breed, age and type of vaccine were identified as being statistically significant factors in the immune response.
Professor Ollier said: “It would be naive to believe one size fits all. It appears that rabies vaccination alone, without some measure of judging responses, will misclassify the immune status of some dogs in some breeds.”
However, Nigel Gibbens showed the rapidly decreasing picture of rabies in much of the EU, which affects the risk to travelling pets and said that any measures must be strictly risk-based. He stressed that we are unlikely to keep any measures which cannot be proven to address a problem effectively.
When it comes to parasiteborne diseases, Dr Sue Shaw of Bristol University confirmed that her laboratory at Bristol University sees many cases of leishmaniosis in particular and also babesiosis, as well as the tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus. However, it appeared that unless a disease had human health consequences, the Government’s attitude very much placed the responbiility back on to owners – and expects vets to educate them.
Nigel Gibbens said: “This is where vets can play a role in educating clients. The
Government is working on some risks, but not others. Owners should be made aware of the risks of travelling abroad and encouraged to think whether travelling with pets is the right thing – as well as the wisdom of rehoming pets from abroad.”
Dr Sue Shaw suggested that travel clinics run by nurses had been a successful way to educate owners.
Echinococcus multilocularis infection was highlighted as a particular problem to human health. The infection is 95 per cent fatal in humans. Professor Phil Craig said: “There is no evidence to show we have it here.”
He did, however, demonstrate an increasing presence in Europe. He was very much in support of the continuation of the derogation: “We need to prevent establishment on our island using PETS,” he said simply.
The debate continues, but one thing is for sure – the EU may want us to harmonise, but the case for keeping our derogation in place is not a closed book.