22/11/2019
The end of the Pet Passport – A good thing for pet health or not?
The EU has stated that after Brexit the UK will be a “third country” which will exclude us from the Pet Passport scheme. Since 2012, we have been able to take animals abroad easily using this scheme, but there has been some very unexpected consequences. For example, the UK now imports more dogs from Romania than any other country in the world. No dogs were imported from Romania in 2013; last year the figure is thought to be more than 20,000 dogs. The dog's trust reports a parallel increase in puppies smuggled from eastern Europe on false passports. Does this matter?
I think it does. The continental land masses tend to have many more animal diseases than isolated island populations. Pets in the UK or New Zealand or Iceland have very high pet health with far fewer diseases to contend with than, say, pets in the USA or continental Europe.
In fact, talking to American vets they are often bemused by how many animal diseases we just don't have . If they had asked me a few years ago if I had seen Leishmaniasis, Canine Redwater, Transmissable Venereal Granuloma (TVG) or heartworm I would have answered nope! nope! nope! nope! Why do we not have these diseases? Because we have wonderful barrier to disease transmission called the English Channel. Many people are unaware that rabies was endemic in large cities in the UK prior to the 20th century. The dog licence and stricter dog controls eliminated it from the country and we have been free ever since, thanks to the English channel. However with the abuse of the Pet Passport Scheme by puppy smugglers and dodgy charities, I have now seen leishmaniasis (including deaths), canine redwater, TVG and heartworm. Of particular concern is the number of exotic tick species now appearing in the UK – these are vectors (transmitters) of many diseases.
As recently as 2016, we only had to worry about one type of tick in the UK – the familiar sheep tick Ixodes ricinus. If your pets like to wander over old, under-grazed pastures, getting the odd passenger was not unusual. These ticks like high humidity and some warmth and are active mainly in spring and autumn. They feed for about three days then drop off. They can transmit Lyme disease to humans and dogs and, in fact, exposure to Lyme disease is probably quite common in dogs with up to 50% of dogs having antibodies to Lyme disease in some surveys. However, actual clinical cases of Lyme disease in dogs are, for whatever reason, very rare.
However the situation changed in May 2017 when a study was published showing the presence of a new tick Dermacentor reticulatis in one particular area of Harlow, Essex. This tick has many names – the ornate cow tick, the ornate dog tick, the meadow tick or marsh tick. Unlike the common sheep tick, this tick can survive extremes of temperatures, can survive underwater and is active all year round and in cold weather. It lays large numbers of eggs and, crucially, it can stay on the host for 9-15 days. Thus it hitch a ride on dogs and can travel long-distances. An outbreak of Canine redwater, a nasty disease resembling Malaria, was seen in dogs that had been walked in an affected field. The disease had never before been seen in the UK in animals that had not travelled abroad. The source of these ticks was thought to be dogs coming back from Europe under the Pet passport scheme. This tick can also transmit Tick Born Encephalitis (TBE) virus, a potentially fatal condition affecting dogs and humans. And then...
In 2017 a survey of dogs coming back from abroad found that 76% had at least one tick. These included the Rhipicephalus sanguineus, the Brown Dog Tick or Kennel tick which can carry canine redwater and TBE. Unlike other ticks, these ticks can establish populations indoors and, once established, these ticks are nigh impossible to clear from a house. Several homes have been reported infected in the UK. (This could be an interesting point if you needed to sell your house. “lovely house, but it has ticks that carry a virus that can kill you and that we can't get rid of.” This would not be a great selling point, I suspect.) And then...
19.06.2019 – The tick Hyolooma rufipes was reported to have been found in Dorset the previous year. This tick is only found Africa and hot southern climates. It is known to carry the Congo Fever virus (a virus that has been dubbed “The next Ebola”) a virus that can kill 40% of sufferers. And then...
29.10.2019 The TBE virus was found in Norfolk and the Dorset:Hampshire border after a European visitor to the UK developed the disease after a visit to the New Forest. This disease can be transmitted by the sheep tick, D. Reticulatis and the Brown Dog Tick. The source of the virus is unknown. And just to add another bloody worry...
21.11.2019 researchers at The University of Glasgow report that a new strain of the redwater parasite Babesiosis (B. venatorum) had been found in sheep in the UK for the first time. This is the first time this parasite has been found in sheep (it's host was thought to be Roe Deer) and it may represent a threat to people working with sheep or dogs walking on sheep pastures.
This rapidly increasing diversity of tick populations and tick-borne diseases now poses clear new dangers to canine and public health.
In September 2019, the Veterinary Times reported the results of an RSPCA Special Operations unit raid on a kennel, “4PAWS” rescuing dogs from Romania. It was revealed that this one kennel had imported 4,600 dogs in a 15 month period. 62 dogs were taken into care by the RSPCA. Of these, 22 had no detectable levels of rabies antibody (suggesting that they had not been properly vaccinated), 4 had canine redwater, 4 had the tick-borne disease Hepatozoonosis, 2 had Leishmaniasis, 1 had distemper, 1 had heartworm. 1 dog was found dead in a cage. Dogs taken into care elsewhere had canine redwater, Giardia and Campylobacter infections. Roughly a fifth of dogs had serious infectious diseases, which tallies with our own experiences of these imports. Reviewing CCTV footage at the kennels showed that some dogs were not fed or watered for 3 days. The owners were given suspended prison sentences and banned from keeping animals.
RSPCA Chief Inspector Briggs told the Veterinary Times “I think this is hugely serious. Its a ticking time bomb. It can only be a matter of time before a dog carrying rabies comes into the country” The Dogs Trust subsequently reported how simple it was to buy under age puppies in Eastern Europe. These dogs came with Pet passports with vaccination details completed by crooked vets but with all other details left blank.
Extract from the Dog's Trust Report on Puppy Smuggling 2018.
“The decision to exit the EU provides the Government with a crucial opportunity to review and amend the legislation governing pet travel, trade and disease control. This includes the possibility of reintroducing important animal health requirements that are not currently permitted under EU legislation. Post EU Exit we urge the Government to: • Reintroduce a requirement for a rabies blood (titre) test before entry into the UK, together with a wait period in line with the incubation period of rabies • Reintroduce a requirement for dogs and cats to be treated against ticks before entering the UK • Shorten the tapeworm treatment window for dogs before entry into the UK from 120 hours to 48 hours as previously required. Reintroduce a requirement for cats to be treated against tapeworm • Reduce the number of dogs allowed under non-commercial movement rules “
I for one will not be sorry to see the end of the pet passport – time to say enough is enough.
