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If you are planning to travel with your four-legged friend, you should start making preparations quite early, leaving nothing to chance. First of all, you should check if animals are admitted in the tourist facility you have chosen for your stay, as well as collect information about the rules you'd have to comply with. And most importantly, you should inquire about veterinary health rules and vaccination requirements, which apply in the country you have chosen for your journey. For further information, visit the following websites: www.ministerosalute.it/speciali/piSpecialiNuova.jsp?id=79 www.ministerosalute.it/caniGatti/paginaMenuCani.jsp?menu=viaggiare&lingua=italiano www.ministerosalute.it/caniGatti/caniGatti.jsp
TRAVELLING IN ITALY
Before leaving, it is important to ensure that your pet is in good health, therefore bringing him/her to the veterinarian is certainly the best way. Please make sure also that your four-legged friend's health card is updated with vaccinations.An appropriate vaccination programme can help protect cats and dogs from the most common infectious diseases, which may have serious implications for them. Dogs are mainly at risk of developing infectious gastroenteritis, distemper, infectious hepatitis, infectious tracheobronchitis, leptospirosis and rabies. Pets should be vaccinated for the first time when they are approx. 50 days old: vaccinating them before would be useless, owing to the interaction between vaccine antigens and antibodies developed by pets which have been sucking their mother's milk ('colostrum') since their birth. The same rules apply to cats: they have to be vaccinated against the most severe viral diseases (feline panleucopenia, Feline Calicivirus and Herpesvirus, FeLV). Vaccination is an effective prevention method to protect also domestic cats from the most common infectious diseases. If you never had your pet vaccinated, you should promptly do something about it, regardless of his/her age. The Health Card contains all the information on our pet's vaccinations and surgery, as stated by your veterinarian and must be replaced by the European passport, issued by the veterinary services of your Local Health Unit, if you are planning to carry your four-legged friend with you when travelling abroad. The European pet passport has, in fact, a section ad hoc to record any information in this connection. Regardless of the destination and in addition to vaccinations, cats and dogs should also be protected from external (fleas, ticks, acari, etc) as well as internal parasitic infestations (tapeworm and roundworm) using any available parasiticides. In some Southern regions, like Sardinia, the echinococcus - a particular type of taenia (tapeworm) - can be easily found. Dogs can be particularly susceptible to these infestations when they eat raw or half-cooked meat (mutton, beef, pork, etc.), attracting parasites which may also infect men. All over the Mediterranean and Italy, and in particular in Sardinia, Argentario, Elba, Sicily and other Southern regions, the most serious danger is represented by (phlebotomine) sandflies, which are primarily responsible for the transmission of leishmaniasis. Once contracted, this disease can be only kept under clinical control, since the animal will never be freed from parasitic infestation. Hence, it is important to take any necessary preventive measures in this regard. Several types of antiparasitic collars and sprays acting as a repellent for sandflies are currently available on sale. In these places, however, it is preferable not to let your dog out in late afternoon, when these dangerous insects are more aggressive, nor let him/her sleep outside at night. In Northern Italy and in any other humid and flat regions like the Po Valley, it is important to protect dogs from cardiopulmonar filariasis, a common and dangerous disease that can be prevented through specific drug treatments. Rabies vaccination is still a precaution to take, since this disease can be transmitted to men, too. At present, the risk of contracting it is very small, thanks to vaccination programmes involving also wild animals. A disease that is also common in rural areas is leptospirosis, an infection affecting cats and dogs at any age as well as men. The infection is commonly transmitted by allowing water that has been contaminated by infected rat urine to come in contact with unhealed breaks in the skin of our four-legged friends. It is therefore advisable to vaccinate your pets against leptospirosis, having booster shots every six months for pets at a higher risk of exposure |
