CAMERON  VETERINARY

In order to travel interstate with your animals, certain tests and documents are required. The requirements vary by st ate and are specific for each species of animal. Requirements can change due to disease outbreaks. Some advance planning is necessary in order to obtain all the necessary documents.

Arriving at a state line without the required documents may result in your being held up at the port of entry, fined or denied entry and turned around for home. While this may seem inconvenient and costly, this process is in place to try to monitor and limit the spread of infectious, contagious diseases in hopes of keeping your animals healthy.

In order to help me issue the correct papers, I will need to know which animals are traveling, the state they will travel to, the date of departure and who will be hauling them. I will contact the state veterinarian at your destination state in order to verify the current entry requirements. Please let me know of any additional documentation or testing that a show may require be included on the health certificate.

HORSES: Most states require three pieces of information: a health certificate (see related article) a “Coggins Test” (see related article) and a brand inspection certificate (i.e. “hauling card). Veterinarians issue health certificates and Coggins tests. The local Brand Inspector who works for the New Mexico Livestock Board issues the hauling card. Call the Livestock Board at 505-841-6161 to get the contact information for your local brand inspector.

ALPACAS & LLAMAS: The requirements vary quite a bit depending on the state of destination and age of the animal. Show requirements vary also and are not always clear or readily available. Some of the more common tests are: 1) Tuberculosis, which requires two veterinary visits, one for injection and another three days later for reading. 2) Brucellosis, which requires drawing blood and sending it to an accredited out-of-state lab and a 7-day wait for results. 3) BVD, for which both the PCR and antibody titer (serology) must be sent out of state. These tests are only run on certain days and it can take up to 10 days to receive results.

Animal identification such as brands or microchip ID numbers may also be required in the paperwork.

Having all of this information ready and available when the animals are inspected will expedite the process for all of us.