The dated, ordered steps for taking a dog, cat or ferret into the United States, the European Union or Great Britain — microchip, rabies vaccination, blood test and the waiting periods between them, quoted from the law itself

Getting a pet across a border is a chain of steps that only counts if it is done in the right order, and every link is a date. The microchip has to go in before the rabies vaccine or the vaccine does not count; the animal has to be old enough on the day it is vaccinated; then there is a wait before travel; and from an unlisted country there is a blood sample taken a set number of days after vaccination followed by a further wait of months. One step out of order costs three months and a plane ticket. This asset records each of those provisions as its own record, quoted verbatim from the instrument that states it — 42 CFR 71.51 for entry into the United States, Regulation (EU) No 576/2013 for the European Union, and the Defra guidance at GOV.UK for Great Britain. Answers 'what is the earliest my dog can fly?', 'does the microchip have to come before the rabies shot?', 'how long after the rabies blood test can we travel?', 'how old does a dog have to be to enter the US?', and 'when does the tapeworm treatment have to be given?'

Records19

Sources7

Verified2026-09-15

Review by2026-12-26

LicenceThree sources, all reusable. 42 CFR 71.51 is served by eCFR (Office of the Federal Register) and is a work of the US federal government, not subject to copyright. Regulation (EU) No 576/2013 is reproduced from EUR-Lex; reuse of European Union legislation is permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU with acknowledgement of the source, and only short attributed passages are quoted here. The GOV.UK guidance states on its own pages that 'All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0'. In every case we take the fact plus a short quote that links back to the page; facts are not copyrightable (Feist, 1991).

The data

Provision	Entering	What is required	The clock	Order it must come in	Citation	Applies to	If it is not met
An anti-rabies vaccination must fulfil the following conditions	European Union	the pet animal was at least 12 weeks old at the date on which the vaccine was administered	not be less than 21 days from the completion of the vaccination protocol required by the manufacturer for the primary vaccination	the date of administration referred to in point (c) does not precede the date of application of the transponder or tattoo	Regulation (EU) No 576/2013, Annex III, point 2
Marking of pet animals	European Union	shall be marked by the implantation of a transponder or by a clearly readable tattoo applied before 3 July 2011			Regulation (EU) No 576/2013, Article 17(1)	Pet animals of the species listed in Part A of Annex I
Validity requirements for the rabies antibody titration test	European Union	must be carried out on a sample collected at least 30 days after the date of vaccination	at least 30 days after the date of vaccination	on a sample collected at least 30 days after the date of vaccination	Regulation (EU) No 576/2013, Annex IV, point 2(a)
Animal health certificate (AHC)	Great Britain	Your pet can enter Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) with an animal health certificate (AHC) if all the following apply	it’s less than 6 months since the date you entered the EU or a country that accepts AHCs		GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Animal health certificate (AHC)
How to get your pet a rabies blood test	Great Britain	Your pet must have a blood sample taken at least 30 days after the rabies vaccination	3 months from the date the blood sample was taken	a blood sample taken at least 30 days after the rabies vaccination	GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Blood tests for rabies — How to get your pet a rabies blood test
If your dog has had the Canvac DHPPiL+ R vaccination	Great Britain	your dog has had 3 doses of the primary course of the vaccine	at least 21 weeks old before they travel	each vaccine dose was 3 weeks apart	GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Rabies vaccination and boosters — If your dog has had the Canvac DHPPiL+ R vaccination	If your dog has the Canvac DHPPiL + R vaccine
If your pet has had the Canvac R vaccination	Great Britain	they must have had the right number of doses of the primary course	at least 17 weeks old before they travel		GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Rabies vaccination and boosters — If your pet has had the Canvac R vaccination	If your dog, cat or ferret has had the Canvac R vaccination
Microchip	Great Britain	You must get your pet microchipped before, or at the same time as, their rabies vaccination		before, or at the same time as, their rabies vaccination	GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Microchip		they’ll need to be vaccinated again
Rabies vaccination and boosters	Great Britain	You must get your dog, cat or ferret vaccinated against rabies before they can travel		vaccinated against rabies before they can travel	GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Rabies vaccination and boosters	your dog, cat or ferret
Tapeworm treatment for dogs	Great Britain	A vet must treat your dog for tapeworm every time you want to bring it to Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland)			GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Tapeworm treatment for dogs
When to get the rabies vaccinations	Great Britain	Your vet needs proof that your pet’s at least 12 weeks old before vaccinating them	at least 21 full days after the first rabies vaccination		GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Rabies vaccination and boosters — When to get the rabies vaccinations		they’ll need to be vaccinated again
When to give the tapeworm treatment	Great Britain	The treatment must be given: no less than 24 hours before you enter Great Britain no more than 5 days (120 hours) before you enter Great Britain	no more than 5 days (120 hours) before you enter Great Britain		GOV.UK, Bring your pet to Great Britain: Tapeworm treatment for dogs — When to give the tapeworm treatment
Age requirement for all dogs	United States	must be at least six (6) months old at the time of their arrival into the United States	at least six (6) months old		42 CFR 71.51(f)	All dogs presented for admission into the United States	shall be denied admission and returned to the country of departure
CDC dog import form for all dogs	United States	must submit a complete and accurate CDC dog import form to CDC via a CDC-approved system prior to the dogs arriving in the United States		prior to the dogs arriving in the United States	42 CFR 71.51(h)(1)	All importers of dogs
Microchip requirements for all dogs	United States	must have a microchip implanted prior to arrival at the U.S. port		The microchip must have been implanted on or before the date the current rabies vaccine was administered	42 CFR 71.51(g)	All dogs presented for admission into the United States	Rabies vaccines administered prior to the implantation of a microchip are invalid.
Quarantine requirements for animals at CDC-registered animal care facilities	United States	must be quarantined for 28 days after revaccination with a USDA-licensed rabies vaccine at the facility if they do not have a valid rabies serologic test from a CDC-approved laboratory	28 days after revaccination		42 CFR 71.51(q)(1)	Foreign-vaccinated dogs that have been in a DMRVV high-risk country within six months of arrival
Requirement for Certification of U.S.-Issued Rabies Vaccination form for importers seeking to import U.S.-vaccinated dogs from DMRVV high-risk countries	United States	may present their dog for admission without a rabies serologic test from a CDC-approved laboratory, without the dog undergoing veterinary examination (unless ill, injured, or exposed), and without revaccination against rabies or quarantine at a CDC-registered animal care facility upon arrival	within the last six months		42 CFR 71.51(t)(1)	Importers returning to the United States with a U.S.-vaccinated dog that has been in a DMRVV high-risk country within the last six months
Requirement for proof that a dog has been only in DMRVV low-risk or DMRVV-free countries	United States	may be admitted into the United States subject to the requirements in this section if the importer submits written documentation satisfactory to the Director that for the six months before arrival, the dog has been only in DMRVV low-risk or DMRVV-free countries	for the six months before arrival		42 CFR 71.51(u)(1)	Dogs arriving, including those returning to the United States, from a DMRVV low-risk or DMRVV-free country
Veterinary examination, revaccination against rabies, and quarantine at a CDC-registered animal care facility for foreign-vaccinated dogs from DMRVV high-risk countries	United States	shall undergo veterinary examination and revaccination against rabies at a CDC-registered animal care facility upon arrival	within the last six months		42 CFR 71.51(k)(1)	All dogs arriving into the United States that have been in DMRVV high-risk countries within the last six months and that do not have a valid certification of U.S.-issued rabies vaccination form

Where this came from

Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 7 sources this dataset was assembled from.

eur-lex.europa.euhttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32013R0576
gov.ukhttps://www.gov.uk/bring-pet-to-great-britain/animal-health-certificate-ahc
gov.ukhttps://www.gov.uk/bring-pet-to-great-britain/rabies-blood-tests
gov.ukhttps://www.gov.uk/bring-pet-to-great-britain/rabies-vaccination-and-boosters
gov.ukhttps://www.gov.uk/bring-pet-to-great-britain/microchip
gov.ukhttps://www.gov.uk/bring-pet-to-great-britain/tapeworm-treatment-dogs
ecfr.govhttps://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-71/subpart-F/section-71.51

Machine-readable

data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
data.csvThe same records as one flat table, for a spreadsheet or a dataframe. The last four columns are the source URL, the quoted sentence it was read from, the date we last checked it, and which columns are our reading rather than the page's words.
How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.

From your own code

Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.

pip install refsource
refsource lookup pet-travel-entry-requirements destination="European Union"

npx -y refsource lookup pet-travel-entry-requirements destination="European Union"

Set your AI assistant up to use this

Two files and no account. Put this in .mcp.json at the root of your project — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and Codex all read that file — and your assistant can look this dataset up instead of recalling it. The server is remote, keyless and read-only.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "referencesource": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://referencesource.org/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Add to Cursor · or, on the command line: claude mcp add --transport http referencesource https://referencesource.org/mcp --scope project

Then one line in the project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, so the assistant knows when to reach for it:

When a question needs "The dated, ordered steps for taking a dog, cat or ferret into the United States, the European Union or Great Britain — microchip, rabies vaccination, blood test and the waiting periods between them, quoted from the law itself", call the referencesource MCP server at https://referencesource.org/mcp (tool `search_records`, dataset_slug `pet-travel-entry-requirements`) instead of answering from memory — every record it returns carries its source URL and a verbatim quote from that page.

What each tool does, and the servers built over single registers: Connect your AI assistant.

19 records. last verified against source 2026-09-15. due for re-check by 2026-12-26.

Licence. Three sources, all reusable. 42 CFR 71.51 is served by eCFR (Office of the Federal Register) and is a work of the US federal government, not subject to copyright. Regulation (EU) No 576/2013 is reproduced from EUR-Lex; reuse of European Union legislation is permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU with acknowledgement of the source, and only short attributed passages are quoted here. The GOV.UK guidance states on its own pages that 'All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0'. In every case we take the fact plus a short quote that links back to the page; facts are not copyrightable (Feist, 1991).