This information was supplied by Rebecca Allen and we publish this here with her permission.
“This is aimed at cats and dogs owners: I wanted to bring to attention something I am working through at the moment with my pet cat: vaccinations and blood work to get the green light to take your pet to the UK and EU is TIME CONSUMING.
Please ensure you leave enough time (upwards of 5 months!) to ensure your pet will be authorized for travel. They require a blood test taken 30 days after a rabies vaccination (and micro chipping prior to this) and this must come back with enough antibodies to then qualify for the 3 month ‘quarantine’ period before the pet can enter the UK or EU.
If there are not enough antibodies you have to wait longer and retest before starting the quarantine.
You can have the vaccine and blood test at anytime - better to do it as soon as you arrive/adopt a pet. So long as you keep the vaccine certification up to date, the blood test will never expire, and you will be able to arrange exporting your pet much more simply.
I learn the hard way, as due to Covid, I let the rabies vaccine lapse last year and now I am going through the process from scratch. My kitty will have to follow us on to the UK (luckily, we have friends to house him temporarily), but I just wanted to share this information to help anyone in a similar situation or just to highlight to newcomers, that this is something that can be underway from the very start and prevent issues in those final ‘packing up’ months.
I want to add a vet recommendation; go to Leticia Figuiredo at CriaPet in Lago Sul http://www.criapet.vet.br/
She was recommended to me by a friend who used her to get her dog ready for transport to the UK and she is very knowledgeable about the whole process. other countries too.”