A bill in Congress aims to prevent disease spread from imported dogs

The AVMA announced its support of the Healthy Dog Importation Act, which would provide USDA with additional resources to monitor the health of dogs being brought into the United States. The bill is meant to prevent imported dogs from spreading diseases.

Under the bill, every imported dog would need a certificate of veterinary inspection from a licensed veterinarian confirming the dog is healthy and has received all vaccinations and passed all USDA-required tests. Diseases such as screwworm, canine distemper and rabies have been misdiagnosed in imported dogs, which were often distributed to homes and farms across the United States, according to the AVMA.

While the bill would apply to all dogs imported into the country, it will be heavily focused on dogs imported for transfer, including donation, sale and adoption.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said it would ban dog importations from more than 100 countries for at least a year due to a rise in falsified rabies certificates.