Health Certificates

An accredited veterinarian must sign a health certificate for interstate or international movement of small animals as well as livestock. Unfortunately, the entry requirements can vary significantly from state to state. For example, many states require rabies vaccinations of cats over three months of age (dogs and ferrets also require rabies vaccinations). The state of Washington recently returned 35 health certificates to the California Department of Food and Agriculture because they were missing required information. Thirty-two did not have any rabies related information at all.

To find out the requirements for a specific state, the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers a telephone voice response at 800-545-8732 . By following instructions, you should be able to get the requirements for the destination state by species of traveling animal. U.S. State and Territory Animal Import Regulations are also available from www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/sregs/.

International regulations for animals and animal products may be found at the USDA’s National Center for Import/Export Regulation Library. Information about importing dogs and cats into the  U.S. may be found at the Centers for Disease Control and in the Code of Federal Regulations Title 9 Part 93:600.