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Travel over land from Europe to Israel with two Bulgarian pups

25 10:07:33

Question
Hi Chris,

We are planning to travel over land from Europe to Israel with two 3 month old puppies that we found roughly 2 months ago. We had them vaccinated and chipped the same day. The vaccination was to be the last in a series of three that a puppy gets and was supposed to include the previous two which we didn't get, if I understood it right.. and now have Bulgarian (EU) passports for them. That was 2 months ago.
We plan to go through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. I find information that tells me to vaccinate 15 days max before entering, but then we should vaccinate again if we stay more than 15 days in Turkey and go to Syria?
To return to Europe I was told about making a rabies test 3 months beforehand and getting this certified by an lab in the EU? As we have no fixed plans we simply don't know when we are leaving anywhere?

I'm a bit lost to be honest,

Thanks alot for your time,

Maikel

Answer
Hi Maikel,

I think you may be mis-understanding the requirements. You never want to over vaccinate any dogs! I am not a vet but my experience has been that most dogs (like people) who do get over vaccinated can get really sick.  

I think what the requirements say is that you must make sure that the animal has current vaccinations and that they are received before that time period or within a specific time period.

What you need to do is go to each country's embassey /consulate (or their website)for the embassey based in your country.  We'd need to know what country you are leaving from.. I think it's Bulgaria but not sure.  I'm pulling the requirements from the US because I'm not sure what country you are based in - but if you contact each consulate directly they can give you the specifics from your country.  

You'll want to ask these specific questions
 1.  Is there a mandatory quarantine?
   a. If there is a mandatory quarantine is there a direct release  
     program and what are the requirements for the pets going
     through direct release?
  2. Do you need to file any paper work before arriving in that
      country and when does that need to be filed?
  3. Let them know you have a pet passport and ask them if that is  
     acceptable for a certified health certificate.  (Different  
     countries accept different papers)
4. Let them know what other countries you will be in before you  
     reach their country (going there as well as coming back) and
     ask if there are any different requirements that they might  
     have for traveling through any of those countries.  Because
     different countries have different health standards, sometimes
     countries have different vaccination requirements for entry or
     direct entry without quarantine.



Turkey -  
Requires -
1. A rabies vaccination certificate, which must be, issued not later than fifteen days prior to the entry.  (this means that you can not enter if you vaccinated your dogs within 15 days of entry - they need to have already been vaccinated - which you are saying they already are.  So no need for an additional rabies vaccination
2. If coming from the US they require a US Health Certificate. Please check and make sure with the consulate that your dog passport will suffice for this requirement  > The consulate's email is contact@turkishembassy.org  (specify what country you are coming from in your email)


Syria
Requires -
1. A current rabies vaccination certificate
2. A valid health certificate (this was taken from both the German & Australian Syrian Embassy's websites, so please contact your local embassey and make sure that your dog's passport is acceptable or if you need an other valid health certificate.  They can be contacted through the following website. Again specific what country you are coming from and what countries you will be going through to get there as well as your return trip. http://syrian-embassy.com/english/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3


Jordan  - I can not find any specifics on importing pets on their website, but I would contact them directly to find out what their policies are. They can be emailed at consulate.london@fm.gov.jo   

Isreal
Requirements - From what I'm finding Isreal has a mandatory quarantine. I would contact the Isreali consulate in your country to find out if there is a way to pre-quarantine your dogs before going there otherwise they may have to be taken directly to the airport quarantine facilities and will have to remain there until the quarantine period is up (not every country allows pets to travel freely without meeting specific requirements.  The website is http://sofia.mfa.gov.il/   Unfortunately I do not read hebrew so I can't understand what is on this website, but hopefully there are some answers here for you.   

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Chris Shoulet
Dogtravel Company
www.dogtravelcompany.net.