Travel with your pet can be a lot of fun and very straightforward with a little advance planning to meet any legal requirements and to ensure pets are protected against a variety of exotic parasites they may encounter.

This article will help guide you through some of the key points to consider and provides additional web links for find further information.          

Post Brexit, new rules are in place for taking dogs abroad to an EU or EU listed country. Legal requirements include:  

• Microchip – Your pet must be microchipped before travel. 
• Rabies vaccination – This is essential to keep your pet safe and make sure that rabies isn’t introduced into the UK. If this is the first time the pet has had the injection, then you will have to wait 3 weeks before travel. How often this needs to be topped up with a booster vaccination will depend on the brand being used and the country in which is it administered. 
• Correct valid EU Pet Passport or an Animal health certificate (AHC) – Ask your vet for more information well in advance of travel.
• Travel with an approved transport company on an authorised route – If travelling by air or ferry, the transport needs to be approved (see GOV.UK for more details). 
• Tapeworm treatment – Dogs entering Britain, Ireland, Finland, Norway or Malta must be treated for tapeworms by a vet between 1 and 5 days before arrival. This treatment is vitally important to prevent a tapeworm called Echinococcus multilocularis entering the country which can cause life threatening disease in people. In addition to this treatment. It is important that dogs are also treated for tapeworm every month they are abroad and once more when they have returned to the UK. 
• Check you are travelling to an EU listed country – If you are travelling to a non EU listed country then your pet will require rabies blood testing. EU listed countries can be found on the GOV.UK website (www.gov.uk). 

As well as rabies and tapeworm, there are parasites abroad which your pet will need protection from. These include

• Heartworm – The heartworm Dirofilaria immitis is a parasitic worm transmitted by mosquitoes living in the heart chambers and pulmonary arteries of dogs, cats and ferrets. Infection can lead to severe cardiac and respiratory disease and prevention for pets visiting endemic areas is vital. Dogs visiting Southern and Eastern Europe, should be protected by a licensed preventative treatment applied monthly while abroad and for at least one treatment on return to the UK. 
• Leishmania – This is an infection transmitted to dogs via sand flies although other routes of transmission can occur including blood transfusions, venereal, congenital and possibly dog bites and contact with open sores. Numerous species of Leishmania exist, but the one that infects dogs and cats primarily in Europe is Leishmania infantum. It can infect people but this occurs mostly through sand fly bites and so the risk from infected dogs in the UK, where we don’t have the sand fly vector is very small. It is a cause of severe immune mediated disease in cats and dogs and pets travelling to endemic countries should be protected with a licensed sand fly repellent. These can take the form of spot on preparations or collars and should be applied 1 week before travel. They should then be reapplied while abroad in line with datasheet instructions and veterinary advice.  Swimming and shampooing can affect how long these products last for so the datasheet should be read carefully. Fly repellents are not 100% effective however, and other methods can be used to help prevent Sand fly exposure such as picking a breezy, exposed area for camping and avoiding walking between dusk and dawn. Leishmania’s distribution is similar to that of heartworm with Southern Europe endemic and seasonal fluctuations through France and Eastern Europe. Pets travelling to these areas should have protection in place. Vaccines are available in Europe to help prevent disease from Leishmania infection but are currently not available in the UK.
• Tick-borne diseases. Pets travelling abroad may be exposed to ticks carrying a wide range of pathogens exotic to the UK such as Babesia canis and Ehrlichia canis. Infections can lead to severe diseases with anaemia, clotting disorders and neurological signs so tick prevention is vital to keep pets safe. The approach to this is twofold. Preventative products should be used and pets should be regularly examined for ticks. If travelling to Leishmania endemic countries then tick prevention can often be combined with sand fly repellency in one product. Effective tablet, spot on and collar preparations for tick prevention are all available so it is good to talk to your vet about which is best suited for your trip. No product is 100% effective so checking your pet and yourselves after outdoor activity and removing any found will also help to prevent transmission of tick -borne disease. 

By taking these simple steps you can help to keep your pet safe while enjoying a wonderful trip away together. For more information on parasite protection abroad visit ESCCAP UK & Ireland (http://www.esccapuk.org.uk) and for pet travel visit GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/taking-your-pet-abroad).