Spain Reinstates Rabies Vaccine Requirement for Pets from Morocco and Ukraine

Spain has taken this measure to limit cases of rabies in the country due to the massive influx of Ukrainian refugees (more than 150,000) with their pets and the detection of infected Moroccan dogs in Ceuta and Melilla. Catalonia, the Basque Country and Asturias are three of the four communities that have stopped enforcing this measure on pet owners for decades. They have announced that they will now respect it, reports El Pais.

Galicia remains the only community that continues not to apply the measure. "We believe that the epidemiological situation of the disease does not require the vaccination of all dogs and cats. In Galicia, where vaccination has been voluntary since 1989 (for more than 30 years), no case has been detected to date, which shows that the risk of rabies entering is minimal. In any case, depending on the variation of the situation, the appropriate technical decisions would be made," the City Council said in a note.

The need to reintroduce mandatory vaccination against rabies throughout Spain has been an insistent demand from veterinarians for years. "It is a disease whose cure is impossible, but whose prevention is easy. And the vaccine is the only effective way to fight it. We are very happy with the decision of the Basque Country, Catalonia and Asturias, and we have a hard time understanding that of Galicia," said Luis Alberto Calvo Sáez, president of the veterinary association (OCV).

Veterinarians insist that the risk is permanent, recalling the case of a Moroccan dog illegally introduced into France that bit several people in the department of Essonne. Investigations are still ongoing, but if it is confirmed that the dog is Moroccan, it is very likely that it transited through Spain without being detected, they point out. Similar cases were recorded in Seville in 2020 and Toledo in 2013, always with Moroccan dogs.