New CDC Regulation on dog imports (takes effect August 1, 2024); impacts puppies the most
Introduction
On August 1, 2024, the new CDC regulations around dog imports will take effect. The primary changes compared to current rules are increased documentation around vaccinations and, in effect, a waiting period of a minimum of 6 months on importing puppies from other countries into the US. These changes will have a significant impact particularly on breeders and wholesalers of dogs that are primarily imported. Are these changes necessary? And what does this mean for you?
The CDC created the Dog Bot, linked above, which is an AI that walks you through a list of import requirements for various scenarios. The Bot is focused on where your dog has been in the last 6 months and imposes stricter requirements for dogs that have been in what appear to mostly be third world countries. Notably, dogs must be a minimum of 6 months old in order to be imported into the US. My best advice is to work with your veterinarian on understanding what you need to do. They have to fill out a lot of the official paperwork anyway. Just don’t go with a small mom and pop vet.
Are these changes necessary?
The purpose of these changes is to minimize the risk of importing dogs with rabies. However, the US has pretty much eliminated rabies both in canines and humans with fewer than 10 fatalities per year since the 1960s with a trend downwards to the current year. There’s a much higher risk of contracting rabies from an unvaccinated dog born in the US that just never got the rabies vaccine and got bitten by a wild animal with rabies. So the net benefit here seems minimal to minimizing rabies.
What does this mean for you?
Probably nothing for the average pet owner. There are a number of things to consider longer term: the socialization of puppies earlier in their lives, the price of dog imports, the impact on the US breeding programs.
Socialization
As most everyone knows, the first few weeks of a puppy’s life can be the most impactful in terms of shaping their behavioral traits as adult dogs. With the import rules establishing a minimum age of 6 months, those initial weeks of socialization will have to be handled by someone else outside the control of the US breeder/buyer. This could be fine if the foreign seller is conscientious of what needs to be done but there will always be more question marks on the US side of what was done to socialize these puppies before they’re imported than if they were raised in the US.
Price of dog imports
Since these dogs will have be raised for additional months in a foreign country, they will have to receive additional vaccines, food, handling, training, and other costs which will undoubtedly drive up the price of these dogs as well as the additional vet costs to get the necessary paperwork filled out to import to the US. Depending on where the dog is coming from, that may be less cost efficient than raising in the US, especially some of the European countries which may have a significantly higher cost of living.
Impact to US breeding programs
There are a few things to consider in looking at the potential impact to US breeding programs. The first is that many breeders may just elect to import less since it’s more trouble to do which can result in less genetic diversity (higher inbreeding) over time. Breeders alternatively may start working more closely with other US breeder to maximize the genetic diversity already in the US. Ultimately, the imported dogs are largely for working dogs/sporting dogs and the demand for those is law enforcement, military, and people who have the money to do what are already expensive dog sports so they may just absorb whatever additional costs there are to continue with business as normal but getting your hands on a great working dog as an average citizen may become harder.
Conclusion
The overall impact to the US as a result of this change in import rules will likely increase costs, lower the amount of control that breeders have on socialization and genetic diversity, and most likely will not have an impact on the number of incidents of rabies since that is largely negligible in the last few years. But this doesn’t seem to be going away so definitely check out the Dog Bot if you are needing to import a dog or bring your dog back to the US and make sure you’re working closely with your vet to get the appropriate paperwork completed.
