rabies vaccination validity

[saschia]

Hey all,

I have encountered a new problem with foreign participants at events in Slovakia.

In Europe, now vaccination against rabies are officially valid for 3 years. The problem is, Slovak authorities do not accept validity of vaccinations after the first year. I asked my vet about this and the reason is that there is still a relatively high amount of rabies in Slovakia, we have quite often outbursts in foxes and therefore we need to have high antibody titer in dogs.

So I wanted to remind everybody who is planning to come to Slovakia for exams, shows and youth presentations/bonitations, that they should keep this fact in mind. If your dog's vaccination against rabies is older than one year, you may be not allowed to enter the show/exam grounds.

[Kerstin]

Thanks for this important information.
Will they accept a Titer-test younger then a year?

All my dogs have a 3 year valid rabies-vaccination (which is prooved to last even much longer).

Will this mean as well, they will have Problems to enter Slovakia?

Greetings,
Kerstin

[saschia]

You can enter Slovakia (we are in Shengen space after all), but you may have problems entering showgrounds. The organizers of the events have to follow the rules which are actually pretty local and are layed down by local veterinary council, so for some kynological events you need vaccinations against rabies, parvovirus and distemper, while other require also vaccination against hepatitis, veterinary statement of health and some require from slovak owners even stamp from regional veterinary council that the region where the dog lives is not having a rabies outburst. That's why it is important to always read propositions to the organized events.
But whatever the local variability is, they always require all the vaccines to be renewed yearly and at least 21 days before the event. I created this thread especially because veterinarians abroad do not know about this. In Slovakia, we are actually using the same vaccine as the rest of Europe, so it is not a matter of vaccine, but a matter of precautions.

As far as I know, nobody in Slovakia asks for titer tests, you just need to have the vaccinations in the Pet Passport. But if I am correct, countries like Great Britain which require titer test, only consider it valid if the vaccinations were renewed every year.

[*Satu]

Normal way is if country is rabies free you can vacinations every 3 years but if not ,you most take every year.

[Juniorwolf]

In Denmark we only vaccinate for Rabies every third year, but earlier this year when I went to Sweden I had to make a Serological test for Rabies in a EU-approved labortory, which states that the Rabies neutralising antibody titre was equal or greater than 0,5 IU/ml.

This should be enough and to make sure that the dog does not spread Rabies or get infected by Rabies, so any further vaccination would be a waste of time, money and suffering for the dog(if it does not like the vet.). So I think it is strange if vaccinations every year is obligatory in countries who are not free of Rabies , when 0,5 IU/ml. is enough to protect the dog.

[Nebelwölfe]

Thank you Saschia for the info. I published it on the German forum, too.
Petra