‘In the Netherlands it will be watch out for rabies’ | Inland

That says Paul Overgaauw, veterinary microbiologist at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht. He advises the animal welfare organization House of Animals, which is also raising the alarm. According to Overgaauw, at least 50,000 puppies a year are imported into our country, seen or unseen. According to him, the papers of the dogs often mentioned vaccinations that were not actually given.

The dogs must be at least 15 weeks old and (by 12 weeks) vaccinated against rabies to be allowed to be traded, but the vast majority are younger, usually only about six weeks, the vet says. Older dogs are not interesting for the exporters in Eastern Europe: the care and the food will otherwise cost them too much.

Antibodies

House of Animals did blood tests on puppies that were exported from Hungary to our country. From samples of dogs that ended up at a dealer in Brabant via Hungary, according to House of Animals, “no or too few antibodies” against rabies were found in the blood.

Next week, House of Animals will file a complaint against the trader in Brabant and also against the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), because the authority would not be able to enforce the rules sufficiently. According to Overgaauw, there is not enough knowledge at customs, for example, and only roughly the dogs are looked at.

Response NVWA

The NVWA says it is deploying a lot of capacity against rabies and that Hungary is not a country with a high risk of this. The authority has long warned people to be careful when buying puppies and only take them if there are papers. The NVWA checks the certificates as much as possible and must, according to the ‘European principle of trust’, assume that the papers from other member states are correct. If they are suspicious, the authority will also report this to the countries of origin.

Humans can be vaccinated against rabies, but this actually only happens to travelers to certain distant destinations.

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