Guidance

Import live animals and germinal products from the EU to Great Britain

How to import or move live animals and germinal products from the EU and Northern Ireland to Great Britain.

Imports of live animals and germinal products from the EU to Great Britain are categorised as high risk under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM).   

You’ll need to follow the process to:  

  • check what documents you need  
  • notify the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)  

Read more about importing live animals and germinal products under the Border Target Operating Model.

This guidance applies to businesses in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) importing or moving the following germinal products and live animals from the EU:

  • germinal products (semen, ova and embryos)
  • reptiles
  • amphibians (except salamanders)
  • invertebrates (except bees, molluscs and crustaceans)
  • livestock – such as cows, sheep, goats and pigs
  • equines (including equines from Norway)
  • poultry (including day old chicks and hatching eggs)
  • captive-bred birds that are not pets, poultry or for research, display or conservation (for example, captive-bred birds imported commercially for sale in pet shops)
  • non-domestic ungulates – these are hooved animals that are not farm animals, such as llamas, alpacas, antelopes, camels, wild pigs, tapirs, rhinos, giraffes, elephants, hippos

You’ll need to follow additional rules if your live animal or germinal product is:

You need to follow different guidance if you’re importing:

You should check if current issues, such as disease outbreaks may affect your import.

This guidance also applies to goods imported for commercial purposes by post or courier. Contact your post or courier service for more information about the process.

Check what documents you need

Most imports of live animals and germinal products from the EU must come with a health certificate.

If there’s no health certificate for your product, you may need an import licence or commercial document.

Equines imported to Great Britain from the EU, Norway and Northern Ireland must have an up-to-date horse passport.

Health certificates

The EU exporter must apply for the GB health certificate in their own country – competent authorities should use model health certificates and any supplementary health certificates and declarations to create versions that exporters can apply for.

If the exporter creates a GB health certificate using a system approved to produce verifiable PDF certificates, they do not need to send the original health certificate with the consignment. They must send you the official, verifiable PDF certificate once it has been signed by the competent authority. Use this for your import notification in the import of products, animals, food and feed system (IPAFFS).

If the exporter does not use a system approved to produce verifiable PDF certificates, the competent authority must send the original paper GB health certificate with the consignment and send you an electronic copy to attach to your import notification in IPAFFS.

You must attach all pages of the health certificate copy to your import notification in IPAFFS.

Import licences

If a GB health certificate does not exist for the animal or germinal product you want to import, you may need an import licence or authorisation to import from the EU.

In some cases, you may need an import licence as well as a GB health certificate.

Check the list of general licences and authorisations to see if the licence you need already exists.

Contact the APHA Animal Imports team if:

  • there’s no licence for your animal or germinal product
  • you’re not sure if you need a licence

You must attach the import licence or authorisation to your import notification in IPAFFS.

Commercial documents

The exporter must send a commercial document, invoice and packing list with consignments of the following live animals and their germinal products:

  • reptiles
  • amphibians (except salamanders)
  • invertebrates (except bees, molluscs and crustaceans)

As well as any specific requirements of your licence or authorisation, commercial documents must include:

  • details of what’s in the consignment, including species and number of animals, if this applies 
  • the name of the person who sent it 
  • the name of the person it’s being sent to 
  • address of the premises of origin 
  • address of the destination premises

It must also state that:

  • none of the material to which this authorisation relates is intended to be used for human or animal consumption in any circumstances
  • the animals are not intended to be released into the wild

The commercial document must travel with the consignment.

The exporter must also send a declaration that confirms the animals are fit to travel for commercial trade.

Notify APHA about imports of live animals  

You must submit an import notification on IPAFFS to tell APHA about imports of live animals from EU countries. This is also known as a common health entry document (CHED). For live animals, the notification is a CHEDA.

You must do this at least one working day before the animals are expected to arrive at the point of entry. 

If the health certificate for your import was generated in the EU’s digital certification and management platform (TRACES), you can use the ‘clone a certificate’ function in IPAFFS. Use this to:

  • create and populate your CHEDA notification with data from a health certificate
  • automatically attach a health certificate to your notification

If the health certificate was not generated in TRACES or the ‘clone a certificate’ function is not successful, you must create the CHEDA notification using the ‘create a new notification’ function or the ‘copy as new’ function.

You’ll get a notification reference number, sometimes called a unique notification number (UNN), when you submit your import notification. The format of this number will be CHEDA.GB.YYYY.XXXXXXX.

The notification reference number does not need to be added to the health certificate if it was created in TRACES, unless the import is part of the Approved Importer Scheme.

Notify APHA about imports of germinal products

You must submit an import notification on IPAFFS to tell APHA about imports of germinal products from EU countries. This is also known as a common health entry document (CHED). For germinal products, the notification is a CHEDP.

You must do this at least one working day before the germinal products are expected to arrive at the point of entry.

You’ll get a notification reference number (sometimes called a unique notification number or UNN) when you submit your import notification. The format of this number will be CHEDP.GB.YYYY.XXXXXXX. 

The reference number does not need to be added to the health certificate.

Checks on imports of live animals and germinal products from the EU

Your live animal and germinal product may have document, identity and physical checks, including tests, at the place of destination. They must stay there for either: 

  • 48 hours 
  • the time indicated on the health certificate 

Checks will depend on public and animal health risks.

Testing and keeping horses and other equines before you import them to Great Britain

The health certificate will tell you about any conditions for testing and keeping equines before they are imported to Great Britain.

Moving live animals and germinal products from Northern Ireland to Great Britain

You can move live animals and germinal products from Northern Ireland to Great Britain if they’re qualifying Northern Ireland goods.

Shows and sales

You can move livestock from Northern Ireland to Great Britain for events such as shows and sales. You must:

  • return livestock to Northern Ireland after no more than 15 days from the date it left Northern Ireland
  • only bring livestock to events at APHA approved assembly centres

If you sell Northern Ireland livestock at an approved event to a buyer based in Great Britain, it can stay in Great Britain.

After 15 days you must keep the livestock in Great Britain for at least 6 months before you can move it back to Northern Ireland or export to the EU.

Contact APHA for information about getting an event approved as an assembly centre: livestockexports@apha.gov.uk

Importing germinal products from the EU from 30 April 2024  

From 30 April 2024, new checks at the border on germinal products from the EU will be introduced.  

All germinal products will need to enter through a point of entry with the relevant approved border control post (BCP). All checks will be carried out at the BCP

Importing live animals from the EU from late 2024 

From late 2024, new checks at the border on live animals from the EU will be introduced.  

All live animals will need to enter through a point of entry with the relevant approved BCP. All checks will be carried out at the BCP.

If you need help

Contact APHA’s Animal Imports team if you’re not sure about anything in this guide.

Published 15 December 2021
Last updated 15 February 2024 + show all updates
  1. Information about cloning CHEDA notifications has been added.

  2. The guidance has been updated to include current information about the border target operating model risk categories and common health entry documents.

  3. A prompt has been added to prepare for new import controls which begin on 31 January 2024.

  4. Changed the 'notify APHA' section to separate out new CHED-A notifications for imports of live animals and IMP notifications for imports of germinal products.

  5. Added links to information about pets, live fish and shellfish and salamanders. Clarified what's required for health certificates and commercial documents. Improved 'checks on imports' section. Added new sections with information about changes under the border target operating model. Minor language corrections and clarifications.

  6. Added information about bringing livestock from Northern Ireland to Great Britain for shows and sales.

  7. Removed references to changes to import controls previously due to come into effect on 1 July 2022, as these have been postponed. The page will be updated in autumn 2022 with new dates for import controls.

  8. Updated the health certificates section to advise EU exporters should also use supplementary health certificates to create versions that exporters can apply for.

  9. Import controls on EU goods to Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) planned from July will not be introduced in 2022. The controls that have already been introduced remain in place. This page will be updated in autumn 2022.

  10. First published.