Pet Travel - Echinococcus

Re: Pet Travel - Echinococcus

Stephen Courtney — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:48:41 GMT

At least we can all be equally afflicted. Personally I think the risks are minuscule, especially if you keep your ingestion of feces to a minimum....not always easy in our profession, i have a long and revolting story revolving around the care needed eating chocolate digestive biscuits at work...

Re: Pet Travel - Echinococcus

plantagenet — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:24:35 GMT

I do find it extraordinary that 'harmonisation' is more important than human health.

Re: Pet Travel - Echinococcus

Stephen Courtney — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:49:53 GMT

Not just sheep's head. Any affected meat will do. sheep, and other animals as well, are an intermediate host, just like us.....so man eating pets are also a risk - in more ways than one!

Re: Pet Travel - Echinococcus

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:15:02 GMT

Given that echinococcus cannot develop in cats it is somewhat surprising that it was a requirement on the first place. Given that even dogs are far more likely to bring ticks infected with nasty diseases back than to have eaten a sheep's head it also surprises me that they dropped the requirement for tick treatment and not the tapeworm treatment in dogs. I expect there's some logic there somewhere.

Re: Pet Travel - Echinococcus

Sarah Keir — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:22:30 GMT

Well spotted - I had missed this little but vital change.

See http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/pets/pet-owners/#eu

Step 5 – Tapeworm treatment – (dogs only): before entering the UK, all pet dogs (including assistance dogs) must be treated for tapeworm. The treatment must be administered by a vet not less than 24 hours and not more than 120 hours (1-5 days) before its scheduled arrival time in the UK.