New regulations on entry of pets into China after May 1, 2019: the general administration of customs has issued the notice no. 5 of 2019 on further regulating the quarantine and supervision work of carrying pets into China, which will take effect on May 1 this year.

Pet quarantine supervision is essential

With the increase of international conferences, personnel exchanges, foreign nationals coming to China and returning from overseas study, there are more and more passengers bringing pets back to China. Pets are hosts of many kinds of viruses and parasites, which have hidden risks of public health and safety. This announcement to the entry of pet quarantine supervision work further segmentation and improvement, under the premise of ensuring the safety of entry pet, adapt to the new situation of port law enforcement, for the entry of pet customs clearance to provide more convenience, fully highlight the humanization.

Here comes the dry goods! Consistent with previous entry requirements for pets:

Passengers are only allowed to bring 1 dog or cat into China each time. They should provide the customs with a valid quarantine certificate issued by the official animal quarantine institution of the exporting country or region, a rabies vaccination certificate and a valid electronic chip for the pet.

Different from previous requirements:

Before implementation, guide dogs, search and rescue dogs and other working dogs can be exempted from quarantine, and other pets must be quarantined for 7 or 30 days at designated quarantine sites at the port of entry.

After implementation, pets in three kinds of situations can pass the field quarantine and be cleared from quarantine.

Three separate situations

1. Pets brought into China from designated countries or regions with effective electronic chips are qualified by on-site quarantine. They include New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Guam, Jamaica, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and macau, China.

2. Pets from non-designated countries or regions, with effective electronic chips, shall provide rabies antibody test report issued by the adoption laboratory (antibody titer or immune antibody quantity shall be above 0.5IU/ml) and pass field quarantine.

3. The pet that belongs to guide dogs, guide dogs and search and rescue dogs shall have effective electronic chips, and the person who carries the pet shall provide the relevant user certificate and professional training certificate and pass the field quarantine.

It should be noted that pets requiring quarantine should be brought into China from ports that have the quarantine conditions for entering pets. It is recommended that passengers who need to quarantine pets enter the country from the following ports to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Ports with conditions:

Beijing capital airport, Beijing west railway station, Shanghai hongqiao international airport, Shanghai pudong international airport, Shanghai railway station, Shanghai international passenger transport center, wusongkou international cruise terminal, urumqi diwobao international airport, alashankou

Customs reminder:

The entry of pets, first of all to understand the customs general administration on carrying pets entry quarantine supervision requirements, in advance for the pet to go through the required electronic chips, quarantine certificate, vaccination certificate. In addition, due to long-distance transportation or quarantine, for the sake of pet health, it is not recommended to bring in pets who are old, weak, pregnant or lactating and have previous medical history.

Keywords： New regulations for pets returning to China in 2019