An important resource is available for veterinary professionals counseling clients traveling internationally with dogs and cats:
"New World Screwworm: Veterinary Considerations for Dogs and Cats that Travel Internationally."
The resource was developed collaboratively by USDA APHIS, CDC, FDA, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Why is this important for pet travel?
The guidance specifically recognizes that travel to or from New World screwworm (NWS)-affected countries can increase an animal's risk of infestation and provides veterinarians with practical recommendations for managing that risk.
The guidance recommends that veterinarians:
🔹 Counsel pet owners, rescue organizations, and service-animal owners about NWS travel risks🔹 Discuss individual risk factors before travel
🔹 Recommend pre- and post-travel veterinary examinations
🔹 Educate owners about signs of NWS infestation
🔹 Make sure travelers understand applicable U.S. re-entry requirements
Importantly, the guidance also says veterinarians should recommend against traveling with dogs and cats to NWS-affected countries when risk factors are severe or cannot be adequately managed.
That is an important pet-travel message.
Veterinary involvement in travel is not simply about completing documentation.
Sometimes the most important question is:
Should this animal make this journey?
The resource also provides specific guidance for examining dogs and cats returning from NWS-affected countries, including careful evaluation of wounds even very small ones and areas where infestation could easily be overlooked.
For Veterinary Air-Travel Medicine™, this reinforces an important principle:
Biosecurity readiness is part of travel readiness.
Pet travel connects animal health, animal welfare, transportation, regulatory compliance, and biosecurity. Veterinary teams have an important role in bringing those pieces together before and after the journey.
📌 Veterinarians and pet-travel professionals: this is a resource worth adding to your pet-travel toolkit.
USDA Resource:
https://direct.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/nws-vet-guidance-cats-dogs.pdf
I encourage you to review it and save it for future international pet-travel consultations.
Safe pet travel starts with us.
About the Author
Nelva J. Bryant, DVM, MPH, is the founder of When Pets Fly® and Veterinary Air-Travel Medicine™, focused on animal health, welfare, regulatory compliance, biosecurity, and transportation across the pet-travel journey.