Service

Rabies Titer testing for pets

Traveling with your pet takes a lot of time and administration. Timely information prevents trouble. Therefore you should begin early to prepare for your trip.

A blood test with determination of the rabies titre is required to prove sufficient protection against rabies infection. The rabies titer must be equal or greater than 0.5 IU for a sufficient protection against rabies infection.

Please also note that when you return to the EU from a third country with an EU-resident pet, you will need a positive serological rabies test (rabies titer >/= 0.5 IU/ml).
Apart from the journey home, a journey through a third country, e.g. through Serbia, is also considered a re-entry into the EU e.g. if you drive from Greece to Austria. When re-entering the EU, a valid pet passport must be carried with you, in which the valid rabies vaccination and also the serological rabies test are recorded.

ATTENTION: If you are traveling without observing the legal requirements, you must expect problems at the border, in the travel destination or when re-entering Austria.

The rabies titer test for entry into the EU or into various other third countries (e.g. Japan, Australia, etc.) may only be carried out in an EU-approved laboratory (https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/pet-movement/approved-labs_en). It is not possible to rewrite a report issued by a laboratory that is not approved by the EU.

Our advantages:

We are an EU approved accredited laboratory with an annual inspection by the EU,
We are the Austrian National Reference Laboratory for Rabies (knowledge of the EU legislation provides well information),
We are a listed approved laboratory for entry to Japan.
Each sample will be examined within 1.5 weeks - unless otherwise announced on the homepage (see examination period e.g. at christmas).

Attention: The last test run in 2020 is on 21.12.2020; the first test run in 2021 on:11.1.2021. Samples that arrive at our institute between December 21st, 2020 and January 11th, 2021 will be tested on January 11th, 2021; the result of the test is then available on the following Thursday.

Sample quality, Formular

Dont bring pets to the institute - we are a diagnostic Institute. We do not take blood from your pet and we are not responsible for travel informations. Blood sampling is done by your vet. The vet must sign our rabies formular and must confirm with his signature the accuracy of the data.

We need at least 500µl "pure" serum or approximately 5ml blood without anticoagulans for the investigation. Do not use LI heparin or EDTA tubes – the test will not function!

The serum can be stored in the refrigerator (4°C) for a short period or in the freezer (-20°C) for 1 week until transport. The quality of the sample may decrease slightly during this period. Transport should always take place in a cooled condition (4°C and lower) (see also sample packaging and transport).

You must fill in the formular for the diagnostic request and you must send it with the sample to our address. For every pet sample - one form. Please, mark the sample so that we can assign the sample to the correct formular. An e-mail address or a telephone number would be helpful for us in case we have to contact or speak with you.

Rabies formular

Correct data: The data you provide will be transferred to the test report after the test has been completed. Since the test report is an official document and your pet is identified by this data, it is important that you provide the data correctly. Please take care of the report!

Sample packaging, sample transport

Sample packaging

The sample is an animal blood sample - for transport the sample package should be designated as "Exempt Animal Specimen - blood serum from dog/cat" - LINK for the packing instructions. The sample should be designated as "For laboratory use only". The sender is reponsible for a good packaging - your carrier will also provide you with information! The sample must be cooled during the transport (4°C or below), especially from countries where the climate is hot. Please cool the sample with cooling packs.

Sample transport to the testing laboratory:

Transport of the blood sample is the pet owners responsibility - thats why all additional costs concerning sample transport (charges for transport and costs for the border control - customs, duties and taxes etc.) must be paid by the sender of the sample before transportation (please fill out the form for transportation carefully! - make the marks by "Transport costs" as well as by "Duty and Taxes costs" by "Sender" and not by "Recipient"!!) - If this is not marked on the correct position the sample is returned straight away without testing

Only use a transport company which is permitted to bring veterinary samples from third countries to the customs. If another company is used the sample will be sent back to the pet owner - the transport companies often do not inform the sender that they are not allowed to transport such samples.

You can also bring the sample to our institute (for opening hours, see Institute Mödling) and, you can also pick up the test report from us in urgent cases. Please make a note on the formular! We take samples during the working hours and also outside office hours, also on weekends and public holidays. Our trained personnel store the samples properly until the samples are processed.

Transport of the samples by plane:

Important for serum samples from pets living in third countries (living outside of the EU):

IMPORTANT: At the Austrian airport please use the red door for customs - otherwise you commit a customs offence which costs you lot of money.

The transport of blood(serum) samples from third countries for the rabies antibody titre test do not have to be reported to the AGES Biorisk officer (BRO).

Investigation period

Usually we start the test on monday morning (except on holidays) and the test is finished on thursday. The results will be sent to the submitting veterinarians or to you (depends on the decision oft he vet) on the following thursday. This is subject to change (e.g. at Christmas)!

The analysis of samples, which arrive later than Monday morning at the lab, will start on the following monday. With this regulation, each sample (except for holidays, e.g. Christmas) can be examined within 1.5 days. The duration of the test procedure is 3 days. ATTENTION: the postal transport of the sample to the laboratory can last 1 week in Austria!

Have you no time? You can also bring the sample to our institute (for opening hours, see Institute Mödling) and, you can also pick up the test report from us in urgent cases. Please make a note on the formular! We take samples during the working hours and also outside office hours, also on weekends and public holidays. Our trained personnel store the samples properly until the samples are processed.

Charge

Charge - for citizens (with an adress within EU):

If you send the serum to our institute you have to pay €76,56 (including VAT) for each blood sample. The bill will be sent to you with the analysis report. Additional costs concerning transport and customs must be paid by the owner of the pet.

Charge -for citizens (with an adress outside of EU):

If you send the serum to our institute you have to pay €63,80 for each package before you get the results. Additional costs concerning transport and customs must be paid by the owner of the pet.

Bankaccount:

AGES GmbH Vet Med Moedling
Bank: BAWAG
Bankcodenumber: 60 000
Accountnumber: 000 9605 1513
The number of the IBAN is: AT 85 6000 0000 9605 1513
BIC: BAWAATWW

Please keep the test report carefully. We charge a special tarif for the reissue!

Contact, adress

Contact adress, adress for sample submission:

Please send the sample with the formular to the following address:

Department of Serology and Virology
Rabies antibody investigation
AGES Institute for Veterinary Examinations,
Robert Kochgasse 17
A-2340 Mödling

Information on rabies antibody testing of pets for import or worldwide travel:

Telephone number: 0043 (0)50555 38525, 38112);
in urgent cases also servicezentraleno@Spam@agesno.Spam.at

Personal contact: Dr. Susanne Richter: Tel.No.: +43 50 555-38400, susanne.richterno@Spam@agesno.Spam.at

Please do not use any other e-mail addresses or telephone numbers!

If you have any questions - we will be glad to help you!

Important informations

Please inform yourself about the vaccination and testing regulations of non-European countries at the embassy of the respective travel destination. You are responsible for the transport of your dog and for the correct compliance with the regulations.

ATTENTION BREXIT - If you are staying in Northern Ireland and England, you may need a rabies titre test for re-entering the EU (LINK zu BMASGK) - this must be done before departure from the EU. In the case of pets, this also means that a EU-pet passport issued in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland will no longer be recognized as a travel document.

Important links:

Entry and re-entry of pets from third countries to Austria - BMASGK

Movement of pet dogs, cats and ferrets between Member states of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland

Information about the illegal puppy trade can be found on the homepage of the Austrian Chamber of Veterinarians