Guidance

Dogs, cats or ferrets (live or germinal products) - Import Information Notes

Guidance for vets, importers and border control officials when importing live or genetic material of dogs, cats or ferrets to Great Britain.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Animal and Plant Health Agency
• Published: 2 December 2024
• Last updated: 21 October 2025 — See all updates

Documents

Commercial import of dogs, cats and ferrets - Import Information Note (IIN) BLLV/5b

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Import of canine and feline semen - Import Information Note (IIN) CFS/1

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Details

You must also read:

• General information: imports of live animals and germplasm - IIN GEN/1
• Clarifying information: imports of live animals - IIN GEN/5

Published 2 December 2024

Last updated 21 October 2025 + show all updates

1. 21 October 2025

   Updated IIN BLLV/5b (Commercial import of dogs, cats and ferrets). Dogs imported from Romania must now have a negative Brucella canis test result before being imported. Added a link to guidance on sending tests to Great Britain. Updated the Country of origin section to clarify how to check permitted trading partners.

2. 22 April 2025

   Edits made to 'Commercial import of dogs, cats and ferrets - Import Information Note (IIN) BLLV/5b'. In section 5, we have clarified that dogs, cats and ferrets from countries that are not listed are not permitted to be commercially imported into Great Britain. In section 7, we've added a link to information about designated laboratories for performing rabies antibody titration tests on the EU Commission website.

3. 7 January 2025

   Amended 'Commercial import of dogs, cats and ferrets - Import Information Note BLLV/5b'. Added the section 'Welfare in transport' and included reference to the welfare in transport team under 'Contact for further information'.

4. 2 December 2024

   First published.