QUARANTINE AND RABIES CONTROL

That this House welcomes the RSPCA's review of the United Kingdom's system of quarantine and rabies control; notes that the review concluded that rabies vaccines are now very effective and failure rates are minute, blood tests to check that the vaccine is effective are now standardised, international standards for microchips have now been agreed, there has been no proven case of rabies in quarantine in the United Kingdom in the last 25 years, the EU rabies eradication programme has reduced the rabies-infected area in Western Europe to only 130 square miles, Sweden, which introduced a system of vaccination, blood testing and permanent identification in 1995, has reported no health or security problems, the costs and inconvenience of quarantine lead many pet owners to smuggle animals into the United Kingdom, there are no statutory welfare standards for quarantine kennels and in a recent NOP survey, 86 per cent. of people said they would accept an alternative system to quarantine if it was scientifically proven to keep the United Kingdom rabies-free; supports the RSPCA view that a system of vaccination, blood testing and permanent identification for cats and dogs from EU countries which are recognised by the World Health Organisation as being rabies-free in those species would provide the United Kingdom with equal, if not greater protection against rabies as quarantine; and therefore calls upon Her Majesty's Government to commission a full-scale risk assessment and full economic audit to determine how a different system could be effectively implemented to maintain the United Kingdom's rabies-free status.