Rabies coming home... What a blunder?

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Silent Knight

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Wel,l having seen the news this morning I have to say that I am slightly worried. Whilst the quarantine laws may be grossly outdated, It appears that the laws are being relaxed to the extreme.

No rabies blood test required?
21 day quarrentine when the disease can take up to 35 - 40 days to show?

Now I may not be expert, but this has me slightly concerned!

My heart went out to the guy the BBC interviewed, who runs the quarrentine kennels and is being effectively put out of business.

Not good. looks like rabies is on its way back. :(
 
Quarantine is outdated, but with passport program in place I would imagine that British shores are fairly safe. They're vaccinating, health checking, worming and checking the titer. But Quarantine is probably the only safe way to ensure that it's not entering the country via pet travel. How about bats or other animals that can enter the country as stow-aways?
 
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Pet passports, jabbed against rabies, blood tests etc and quarantine long enough to cover the time that rabies would take to develop.Doesn't need to be 6 months though. This country is rabies free and I for one would like to see it stay that way.
 
The blood test was used to check the effectiveness of the vaccination - this is the bit that was deemed unnecessary as the vaccine is very effective. The passport, microchip, vaccination and pre-travel checks are all still in place. The 21 day wait is for the vaccine to take effect not for the disease to manifest itself.
 
I am shocked that the blood test has been dropped, and the fact the the vaccinated dog can enter the UK 28 days after the jab. The blood test must be brought back as I have had two puppies vaccinated and when they had the titre test it showed the vaccine had not given them antibodies again rabies. so they had another one and it did work the second time

My vet is furious and he said it is absolutely irresponsible. I will continue to blood test all my hounds after their vaccination after each booster.
 
Mine failed the test as well furst time round but there are two options here: the failure was either because the vaccine had not worked in creating antibodies or it was because the blood test was not effective in detecting them. If the second is true then the test is both irrelevant and distracting.

Even the recently changed regs did not require a blood test after each booster. You only had to do the blood test once, provided the animal passed and you then kept up with the boosters.
 
Probably a way of preparing us all for compulsory rabies vaccinations for our cats & dogs.

The way things are going it is a matter of when, not if, rabies arrives on this island. Probably via one of the lorry ports.
 
misterJinglejay said:
It's not worth the risk - why change a system that has kept us relatively rabies free, so far?
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According to the interviewed, it's about cost (to the person moving the animals) I can attest to the ridiculousness of that. I moved 2 dogs over from the US back in 2001. Two toy breeds, I was required to have two seperate kennels, but I wanted them kenneled together. They told me I had to pay for two, in case they needed to be seperated. The cost was £211 per dog per month x six months. Totally OTT expense for a couple of lap dogs that I could prove that had been vaccinated every single year, without fail.

With all the technology at our disposal via the pet passport scheme (which, by the way, has been coming for YEARS - it just wan't an option for the US/UK travel some ten years ago) I don't see why it should be a problem. There is still a risk of rabies to enter the country, regardless of quarantine / passport scheme.
 
I've imported two together back in the 90s and they shared a kennel. Sounds like just the kennel you used had this policy.
 
Back in early December, 1994, I moved to the UK from Hawaii, with 15 dogs (6 Golden Retrievers and 9 Norwich Terriers). All the Goldens and 2 of the Norwich were whelped in Hawaii, while the other 7 Norwich were whelped in the UK and flown non-stop to Hawaii several years before. All 15 dogs had to undergo 6 months of quarantine. What was so galling about this situation was the fact that Hawaii is rabies-free and had a 4 months quarantine on all incoming dogs, except for those arriving non-stop from the UK, Australia and New Zealand (which are all rabies free and have their own quarantines). I had to transport the dogs on 4 separate flights (seeing as British Air could not accommodate all the dogs on one flight). All the dogs that arrived on the same flight could be quarantined together. I was able to house the 15 dogs in 6 kennels. I had to pay for each dog, despite the fact that they were sharing. I supplied my own food and bedding, as well as laundering everything myself. I paid for central heating, but it was never turned on when the owners were there. The kennel girls tried, but their hands were tied. I did not get a cent reduced for my efforts. When the quarantine establishment changed hands midway through the 6 months, the new owner (who arrived from a European country) allowed her own dogs to run riot through the kennels and her house. Someone made a very pretty penny on my dogs' incarceration. Did I feel as if my dogs were protected? Yes and no. I knew my dogs' rabies status before I placed them in British quarantine (they had all been whelped and lived in rabies-free countries, and they had been vaccinated and blood titred in Hawaii and then, again, upon arrival in England). About 3 months before they were released, a news bulletin announced that a pregnant woman had been bitten by a rabid bat in the south of England. She had to undergo anti-rabies jabs. I looked at my husband and asked him what was the point of this whole exercise? Could they have picked up something other than rabies in UK quarantine? You better believe it.

I don't believe, for one minute, that the new rules will put these fair isles at risk. Rabies vaccine is extremely efficacious and safe. I do wonder about the risk of rabies being introduced by horses. An affected horse is a horror story beyond words. And, while horses are not considered the risk that is attributable to dogs and cats, the body fluids, sweat, etc., produced by an infected horse requires their destruction by high-powered rifle at quite a distance to protect those enlisted to end their suffering. Are horses arriving on our shores, from known rabies-endemic countries, required to be vaccinated against the disease?
 
dressagedreamer said:
I am shocked that the blood test has been dropped, and the fact the the vaccinated dog can enter the UK 28 days after the jab. The blood test must be brought back as I have had two puppies vaccinated and when they had the titre test it showed the vaccine had not given them antibodies again rabies. so they had another one and it did work the second time

My vet is furious and he said it is absolutely irresponsible. I will continue to blood test all my hounds after their vaccination after each booster.
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The manufacturer recommends that any dog under 12 months should be given the jab twice. Funnily - we had to tell this to the vet prior to getting passports issued for all our dogs. All of ours passed the titre test, including our two youngesters, who had two jabs (the rest had one).

I know lots of people who have had passports issued. From these people I have never heard of older dogs failing the titre test, but, I have heard of youngsters who have - again they were only given one jab when they should have had two. What is shocking is the lack of knowledge many vets seem to have on this. We had rather a lengthy argument with ours re the two jabs, and eventually we insisted they called Norbivac, who confirmed we were correct.

Aren't bats in this country potential (allbeit rarely) rabies carriers?? I'm sure there was a case of it about 10 years ago after someone was bitten by a rabid bat?
 
suzysparkle said:
The manufacturer recommends that any dog under 12 months should be given the jab twice. Funnily - we had to tell this to the vet prior to getting passports issued for all our dogs. All of ours passed the titre test, including our two youngesters, who had two jabs (the rest had one).

I know lots of people who have had passports issued. From these people I have never heard of older dogs failing the titre test, but, I have heard of youngsters who have - again they were only given one jab when they should have had two. What is shocking is the lack of knowledge many vets seem to have on this. We had rather a lengthy argument with ours re the two jabs, and eventually we insisted they called Norbivac, who confirmed we were correct.

Aren't bats in this country potential (allbeit rarely) rabies carriers?? I'm sure there was a case of it about 10 years ago after someone was bitten by a rabid bat?
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the dogs that fail the titre test are nearly always youngsters of mothers that have antibodies against rabies already which are passed on to the puppies and this is why they need a second jab, but if the jab is given after 16 weeks the natural antibodies have disappeared by then so the vaccine will then work.

I heard about the bat thing, here is a link I have found, it makes interesting reading and I am thinking about having all mine vaccinated against rabies http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/bats_and_rabies.html#A2
 
suzysparkle said:
The manufacturer recommends that any dog under 12 months should be given the jab twice. Funnily - we had to tell this to the vet prior to getting passports issued for all our dogs. All of ours passed the titre test, including our two youngesters, who had two jabs (the rest had one).

I know lots of people who have had passports issued. From these people I have never heard of older dogs failing the titre test, but, I have heard of youngsters who have - again they were only given one jab when they should have had two. What is shocking is the lack of knowledge many vets seem to have on this. We had rather a lengthy argument with ours re the two jabs, and eventually we insisted they called Norbivac, who confirmed we were correct.

Aren't bats in this country potential (allbeit rarely) rabies carriers?? I'm sure there was a case of it about 10 years ago after someone was bitten by a rabid bat?
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See my post above. When the woman in the south of England was bitten, the report stated that the bat had "pseudo rabies." Despite the press's (or the government's) attempts to play down the event, the woman had to go through the standard series of anti-rabies jabs. And, yes, I believe a scientist was bitten and ultimately died some 10 years ago.

I find it interesting that people who are worried about the introduction of rabies into the UK, comfortably holiday on the Continent, many with their dogs, visit Africa, the States, Asia, in the knowledge that these are not rabies-free locations. If rabies vaccines can be trusted to protect vulnerable animals in those places, why is there such a resistance to its use in the UK?
 
RutlandH2O said:
I find it interesting that people who are worried about the introduction of rabies into the UK, comfortably holiday on the Continent, many with their dogs, visit Africa, the States, Asia, in the knowledge that these are not rabies-free locations. If rabies vaccines can be trusted to protect vulnerable animals in those places, why is there such a resistance to its use in the UK?
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At the moment pet in the UK are not routinely vaccinated against rabies. If rabies does get here every pet owner will have to get their pets vaccinated.
 
suzysparkle said:
Aren't bats in this country potential (allbeit rarely) rabies carriers?? I'm sure there was a case of it about 10 years ago after someone was bitten by a rabid bat?
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Yes, and that's what I was so miffed about, paying through the nose to quarantine my dogs....and it was a guy who worked with bats in some sort of research type capacity - and he hadn't even bothered to get himself pre-exposure vaccinations!
 
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