Mainland United States
Texas
No import permitRabies vaccine neededVet certificate neededNo quarantine
Before you sail
- Rabies vaccine at least 30 days before arrival; at least 12 weeks old when vaccinatedRabies vaccineRabies — min. before travel30 days (THE RULE AND THE AGENCY EXPLAINING IT DO NOT SAY THE SAME THING. Plan on thirty days. §169.32 sets no pre-travel bar in terms. It converts a recent shot into a confinement obligation on the far side: "If an initial vaccination was administered less than 30 days prior to arrival in the United States, the custodian MUST confine the dog or cat for the balance of the 30 days." On that text alone an animal vaccinated ten days before landfall may be landed, then confined for twenty more days. Note the interstate rule, §169.31, phrases the identical sentence as "should" — advisory. Arriving from a foreign port makes it mandatory. BUT DSHS'S OWN ENTRY PAGE GOES FURTHER, and it is the page a cruiser will read: "Additionally, to qualify as being CURRENTLY vaccinated, 30 days must have lapsed since the INITIAL vaccination." §169.32 admits an animal only when it is "vaccinated against rabies"; if DSHS's criterion for that phrase is thirty days elapsed, a fresher vaccination does not satisfy the rule at all rather than merely triggering confinement. Thirty days is recorded here for that reason. A first rabies shot given in your last foreign port a week before departure is the case to avoid: on the narrower reading you land and confine, on DSHS's you do not qualify. Neither reading is comfortable, and both are fixed by vaccinating a month out. See `quarantine` for the confinement mechanics.)confidence: Conflicting. Sources disagree — verify before you rely on it.[567]Rabies — min. age at vaccination84 days (Vaccination required of dogs and cats 12 weeks of age or older.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[5]
- Veterinary health certificate, endorsed by the exporting country's veterinary authority
- Parasite treatment — internal and externalParasites — internalNone. Texas imposes no deworming, tapeworm or internal-parasite treatment on an incoming dog or cat, and no such requirement appears in §169.32 or on either DSHS page. Recorded as an observed absence rather than as an exemption.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[567]Parasites — externalNEW WORLD SCREWWORM — FEDERAL, AND THE SINGLE MOST DEMANDING ITEM FOR A DOG ARRIVING IN TEXAS FROM THE CARIBBEAN BASIN. Under 9 CFR 93.600(a) a dog from a region where screwworm is considered to exist may be imported only with a certificate signed by a full-time salaried veterinary official of the region of origin, stating that the dog was inspected for screwworm within the 5 days before shipment and is free from it (or was treated in quarantine until free before leaving). When this file was written APHIS's published affected list covered most of Central America, the Guianas, the northern South American coast, and — in the islands — Aruba, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, with Mexico handled by a separate APHIS import alert rather than by that list. So it reached most of the GREATER Antilles but, at that date, almost none of the Lesser: the Leewards and Windwards from Anguilla down to Grenada were absent from it, as were Barbados and every Dutch and French island except Aruba. THE LIST IS NOT REPRODUCED HERE ON PURPOSE. APHIS adds and removes regions by administrative action, so any copy of it in this dataset would be wrong sooner than the rest of the page and a reader could not tell when. Check the current Animal Health Status of Regions list against your actual last port before you sail. This is a USDA APHIS requirement enforced at every US port of entry — it is not a Texas rule, and no Texas agency administers it.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[11214]
- MicrochipMicrochipMicrochip — standardAny brand, but it must be detectable with a universal scanner. CDC names no ISO standard and no digit count.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[4]
- Dogs vaccinated against: Rabies — the only vaccination Texas requires of a dog. §169.32 names no other, and neither DSHS page lists distemper, parvovirus, hepatitis, leptospirosis or Bordetella as a condition of entry.Dogs — vaccines
- Cats vaccinated against: Rabies — the only vaccination Texas requires of a cat, and the only one §169.32 names. No FVRCP, no feline leukaemia, no testing of any kind appears in the rule or on the DSHS pages.
- Dogs and cats at least 12 weeks oldDogs — minimum age84 days (The same twelve-week trigger as for cats, and for a boat arriving from abroad it is largely academic: the inherited CDC layer sets a six-month minimum age for a dog entering the United States, which is stricter and bites first. Texas's own rule would allow a younger puppy in subject to mandatory confinement until 30 days after its first rabies shot.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[56]Cats — minimum age84 days (NOT A BAR ON ENTRY. Twelve weeks is the age at which the Texas rabies requirement switches on: "Each dog and cat 12 weeks of age or older to be transported into Texas for any purpose shall be admitted only when vaccinated against rabies." A younger kitten may enter unvaccinated, but §169.32 then makes confinement mandatory — "If the dog or cat is less than 12 weeks of age, the custodian SHALL confine the animal until 30 days subsequent to its initial vaccination" — where the interstate twin, §169.31, only says "should". This is the sharpest interstate / international difference in the Texas rules, and it lands on a cat because the inherited CDC layer already keeps dogs under six months out.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[56]
Not documented Rabies titer test
Fees
No Texas charge, and nothing issued to pay for. Under §169.32 a dog or cat 12 weeks of age or older "shall be admitted only when vaccinated against rabies", documented by a vaccination certificate or passport the owner carries — DSHS issues no permit, no entry certificate and no document of any kind, and neither §169.32 nor the DSHS pet-entry page names a charge. Chapter 169 sets no sum of money anywhere in its text. A FINDING ABOUT TEXAS ONLY: the inherited federal requirements that sit above it, and your own veterinarian, are separate and are not priced here.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[56]
Not published. The one published statement that anyone examines the animal is federal — APHIS at the port of entry — and no Texas source prices an inspection. TAHC's screwworm programme requires a warm-blooded animal moving out of an Infested Zone to be inspected by TAHC or by a NWS Certified Inspector, who "will complete a NWS Movement/Treatment certificate listing the product used for prevention or treatment and the animals' official ID", and it sets no fee for either the inspection or the certificate. That is an absence of published information, not evidence that everything is free.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.[10]
WHO ACTUALLY DOES THE SCREWWORM INSPECTION, AND WHY THAT MATTERS TO THE BILL. TAHC prices nothing, but not every inspector is a TAHC officer: TAHC deployed inspectors are scheduled by phone, while the certification itself is a TAHC / Texas A&M AgriLife "training program designed to train individuals", and TAHC separately publishes a list of certified inspectors made up of "individuals who have agreed to have their contact information shared publicly". Whoever you reach may charge for the visit even though no published tariff says so. Confirm before you need one.[10]
Timeline
- 30 days before arrivalRabies vaccine given by now at the latestRabies vaccineRabies — min. before travel30 days (THE RULE AND THE AGENCY EXPLAINING IT DO NOT SAY THE SAME THING. Plan on thirty days. §169.32 sets no pre-travel bar in terms. It converts a recent shot into a confinement obligation on the far side: "If an initial vaccination was administered less than 30 days prior to arrival in the United States, the custodian MUST confine the dog or cat for the balance of the 30 days." On that text alone an animal vaccinated ten days before landfall may be landed, then confined for twenty more days. Note the interstate rule, §169.31, phrases the identical sentence as "should" — advisory. Arriving from a foreign port makes it mandatory. BUT DSHS'S OWN ENTRY PAGE GOES FURTHER, and it is the page a cruiser will read: "Additionally, to qualify as being CURRENTLY vaccinated, 30 days must have lapsed since the INITIAL vaccination." §169.32 admits an animal only when it is "vaccinated against rabies"; if DSHS's criterion for that phrase is thirty days elapsed, a fresher vaccination does not satisfy the rule at all rather than merely triggering confinement. Thirty days is recorded here for that reason. A first rabies shot given in your last foreign port a week before departure is the case to avoid: on the narrower reading you land and confine, on DSHS's you do not qualify. Neither reading is comfortable, and both are fixed by vaccinating a month out. See `quarantine` for the confinement mechanics.)confidence: Conflicting. Sources disagree — verify before you rely on it.[567]
- ArrivalPresent the certificate; clear the animal before going ashore.
On arrival & aboard
- At the dock
- THIS IS A FEDERAL ARRIVAL, CLEARED BY FEDERAL OFFICERS. Sailing into Galveston, Freeport, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi or South Padre from Mexico, Belize or anywhere in the Caribbean is an international entry into the United States, and clearance is by US Customs and Border Protection. The one published statement about anyone examining the animal is APHIS's, and it is federal: "Documentation will be reviewed and the dog inspected at the port of entry." NOTHING SAYS HOW THAT WORKS AT A MARINA. No source located for this file describes a pet inspection procedure for a private vessel, names an approved port for landing an animal, sets an advance-notice period, or puts any Texas officer at the dock. Texas's own enforcement is expressly downstream: DSHS "may request the local rabies control authority in the area where the animal will be located to monitor the notice for compliance" once it receives a federal importation notice. Treat the absence of a described procedure as an absence of information, not as an absence of a requirement — arrive with the rabies certificate and, for a dog, the screwworm certificate in hand, and ask CBP at the point of clearance. DSHS Zoonosis Control takes questions on +1 512 776 7255.
- By yacht
- MODE OF TRANSPORT IS NOWHERE IN THE TEXAS RULE, which is the useful thing to know about it: neither §169.32 nor the DSHS pages carve out a boat, a liveaboard animal or a short stop, so on the face of the text a dog stepping off a yacht is caught exactly as one stepping off an aircraft, and a dog crossing at Laredo from Mexico is in exactly the same position as one stepping off a yacht from Belize. The one place Texas describes what confinement at home actually looks like is §169.27, and it is addressed to a different situation — the quarantine that follows a bite or a rabies exposure — where home confinement is permitted only if "a secure enclosure approved by the local rabies control authority must be used to prevent escape" and the authority or a veterinarian observes the animal on the first and last days. Read that as the kind of thing an officer may have in mind, not as the arrival standard, which has none. And remember which half is demanding: for an international arrival the federal layer, the CDC dog rules and the APHIS screwworm certificate all attach as well. Do not let the modesty of the Texas requirement set your expectations for the arrival.
Quarantine
No routine quarantine for a compliant animal, and no state quarantine facility is named for a non-compliant one. Texas publishes no consequence at all for arriving without the rabies documentation — no refusal, no seizure, no penalty is described in §169.32, which instead routes non-compliance to "the local rabies control authority in the area where the animal will be located". What that authority may then do is city and county law and is not covered by this file. Separately, 25 TAC §169.34 declares a STATEWIDE rabies quarantine, but it reaches only "any live species of fox, skunk, coyote, or raccoon indigenous or naturalized to North America" — not dogs or cats.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[56]
Open questions
High priority
- HIGH PRIORITY FOR A BOAT — 9 CFR 93.600(a)(1) demands a certificate signed by "a full-time salaried veterinary official of the region of origin", and APHIS names an accommodation only for Mexico. Confirm, port by port, who can actually sign it in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic or Trinidad: whether a government veterinarian is reachable in a cruising port at all, what it costs, and how many days ahead the appointment must be made. Five days is not much lead time if the signature has to come from a capital.
- HIGH PRIORITY — ESTABLISH WHETHER ANY ANIMAL INSPECTION ACTUALLY HAPPENS AT A TEXAS MARINA. APHIS says "Documentation will be reviewed and the dog inspected at the port of entry", but nothing published describes how that is done for a yacht clearing in with CBP rather than at a land border or an airport. Ask CBP at Galveston, Corpus Christi and South Padre directly: is an agriculture specialist involved, is the animal presented, and is there any advance-notice requirement for a pet aboard a private vessel?
Also open
- HIGHEST PRIORITY — TWO OFFICIAL APHIS SOURCES POINT DIFFERENT WAYS ON MEXICO, and the answer decides whether a dog may be landed at all. The "Animal Health Status of Regions" list of regions affected with screwworm, which 9 CFR 93.600(a) itself points to, runs alphabetically from Mauritania to Mozambique WITHOUT MEXICO. Yet APHIS's own import alert and its pet-dog import page both state that Mexico has been considered affected since 22 November 2024 and that every dog, including a US dog returning, needs the screwworm certificate. The regions page carries its own caveat — "This list might not include all regions for which APHIS currently imposes trade restrictions due to sporadic outbreaks of animal diseases. See the 'Temporary Restrictions' section at the top of this page" — and a Mexico import alert is indeed filed under Temporary Restrictions, which reconciles them. This file therefore treats the certificate as required from Mexico. But the two documents are not consistent on their face and this reading has not been confirmed by a human. Confirm with APHIS Live Animal Import and Export (laie@usda.gov, +1 301 851 3300) before sailing from a Mexican port with a dog.
- Establish what happens to the five-day window when weather delays a departure. Nothing in 93.600, on the APHIS pages or in the import alert addresses an expired certificate, a re-inspection, or a passage longer than the window. This is the most likely way a compliant boat becomes a non-compliant one.
- Confirm that no Texas agency inspects an arriving pet. This file finds none: TAHC's rules never mention dogs or cats and its entry chapter defines "Animal" to exclude them, while DSHS enforces §169.32 only by asking the local rabies control authority at the animal's destination to follow up on a federal importation notice. That is a negative finding assembled from two sources, and a negative finding is exactly the kind that should be put to the agencies in writing. Ask DSHS Zoonosis Control (+1 512 776 7255) and the TAHC Permits Help Desk (+1 512 719 0777).
- Ask DSHS whether an animal living aboard a boat at a dock satisfies the §169.32 confinement — DSHS describes the measure as confinement "at home", the rule says only "confine", and neither addresses a vessel. This matters for any cat under 12 weeks and for any animal whose first rabies shot was given inside the 30 days before landfall.
- Texas publishes NO consequence for arriving without the required rabies documentation — no refusal of entry, no seizure, no quarantine, no penalty appears in §169.32 or on either DSHS page. Establish what actually happens, and what the local rabies control authority at the destination may do, since that is where the rule sends non-compliance.
- The DSHS Pet Entry page's summary of the FEDERAL layer is out of date: it describes the CDC "temporary suspension" of dogs from high-risk rabies countries dated 14 July 2021 and the associated CDC Dog Import Permit, which is not the regime the inherited us-federal layer records. Do not read the DSHS page as a current account of CDC's rules; treat it as authoritative only for Texas's own requirement, and verify the federal half against CDC.
- The TAHC New World screwworm Infested Zone list in this file is a snapshot taken on 13 August 2026 and zones were being added roughly weekly through the summer. No coastal county was in a zone then, so Galveston, Corpus Christi and South Padre were unaffected — but this is the one fact here most likely to be wrong by the time it is read. Check the live TAHC zone map before moving an animal inland, and confirm whether TAHC would treat a dog leaving a zone by boat the same as one leaving by road.
- Confirm whether any fee attaches to a TAHC New World screwworm inspection or Movement/Treatment certificate, and whether a NWS Certified Inspector who is a private veterinarian may charge for the visit. Nothing is published.
- No statewide breed restriction was located in the Texas ENTRY rules, and none is recorded here — but this file did not survey Texas dangerous-dog law or municipal ordinances, and the absence of a breed bar in an entry rule is not a statement that none exists anywhere in Texas. Check the ordinances of the city you intend to berth in.
- Nothing addresses an animal that stays aboard and never lands, so no transit section is authored here.
About this page’s sources
- Verify the inherited CDC federal requirements against cdc.gov, which blocks automated access and could not be read directly at author time — the same caveat that stands on the Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands files.
Page status
Mainland United States · State of the United StatesDataset status Inferredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.Last checked 2026-10-06 Recently checkedfreshness: Recently checked. Sources were last re-read 6 days ago, well inside the 180-day window. Recent is not reviewed — this page is still an unreviewed draft.
Evidence
Import permit
- Phone
- +1 512 776 7255
Rabies
- Three-year vaccine
- Accepted
The documentation must be "a vaccination certificate or passport showing the date of vaccination, vaccine used, revaccination due date, identification information for the vaccinated animal, contact information of the animal's custodian, and signature, signature stamp, or computerized signature and contact information of the veterinarian responsible for administration of the vaccine". Six specific elements — a rabies tag or a bare "vaccinated, in date" line does not satisfy it, and the "revaccination due date" element is the one most often missing from a certificate written abroad. §169.32 sets no waiting period for a booster; the 30-day confinement is triggered only by an INITIAL vaccination given inside the 30 days before arrival.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[5]
Rabies titer test
A blood test that measures rabies antibodies, to show the vaccination actually took. The sample has to be drawn a set time after the jab, and some places then make you wait months more before the animal may land — so this is the requirement most worth checking before you plan a route, not after.
Veterinary health certificate
- Form
- No form. APHIS is explicit: "APHIS Veterinary Services does not have a required template or form for screwworm freedom certification. The certification can be a standalone document or incorporated into an export health certificate issued in the exporting country. Documentation will be reviewed and the dog inspected at the port of entry.", For a dog leaving MEXICO only, APHIS relaxes who may sign: the certification "may be issued by a clinical veterinarian trained and authorized to sign on behalf of the official government veterinarian", from SENASICA's published MVRA directory. Everywhere else 93.600 asks for a full-time salaried government veterinary official, and a private accredited vet's signature alone is not what the regulation describes., For the Texas rabies rule, no form either: §169.32 accepts "a vaccination certificate OR PASSPORT" — the only place in this dataset's US files where a pet passport is named in the rule itself, which matters for a boat coming up from the French or Dutch islands.
9 CFR 93.600(a): "Dogs from any region of the world where screwworm is considered to exist may only be imported into the United States if they meet the requirements of paragraphs (a)(1) and (2) of this section and all other applicable requirements of this part... (1) Dogs must be accompanied by a certificate signed by a full-time salaried veterinary official of the region of origin stating that the dog has been inspected for screwworm within 5 days preceding its shipment to the United States. (2) The certificate must state that the dog is either free from screwworm or was found to be infested with screwworm and was held in quarantine and treated until free from screwworm prior to leaving the region of origin." Against that, Texas's own position: "A Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) is not required for dogs and cats entering Texas" (DSHS). Both statements are true at once because they are different governments — do not merge them.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1127]
Parasite treatment
None. Texas imposes no deworming, tapeworm or internal-parasite treatment on an incoming dog or cat, and no such requirement appears in §169.32 or on either DSHS page. Recorded as an observed absence rather than as an exemption.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[567]
NEW WORLD SCREWWORM — FEDERAL, AND THE SINGLE MOST DEMANDING ITEM FOR A DOG ARRIVING IN TEXAS FROM THE CARIBBEAN BASIN. Under 9 CFR 93.600(a) a dog from a region where screwworm is considered to exist may be imported only with a certificate signed by a full-time salaried veterinary official of the region of origin, stating that the dog was inspected for screwworm within the 5 days before shipment and is free from it (or was treated in quarantine until free before leaving). When this file was written APHIS's published affected list covered most of Central America, the Guianas, the northern South American coast, and — in the islands — Aruba, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, with Mexico handled by a separate APHIS import alert rather than by that list. So it reached most of the GREATER Antilles but, at that date, almost none of the Lesser: the Leewards and Windwards from Anguilla down to Grenada were absent from it, as were Barbados and every Dutch and French island except Aruba. THE LIST IS NOT REPRODUCED HERE ON PURPOSE. APHIS adds and removes regions by administrative action, so any copy of it in this dataset would be wrong sooner than the rest of the page and a reader could not tell when. Check the current Animal Health Status of Regions list against your actual last port before you sail. This is a USDA APHIS requirement enforced at every US port of entry — it is not a Texas rule, and no Texas agency administers it.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[11214]
Screwworm inspection within the 5 days preceding SHIPMENT to the United States — the clock runs from departure, not arrival, and no tolerance is published for a delayed passage.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[112]
CATS ARE OUTSIDE THE SCREWWORM RULE ENTIRELY. 9 CFR part 93 subpart F is titled "Dogs" and has no feline counterpart, so no screwworm certificate, inspection or treatment applies to a cat entering the United States. Note also the FEDERAL foot-and-mouth condition that travels with a dog from an FMD-affected country: "Their fur and bedding must be free of excessive dirt, hay, or straw. The dog should be bathed as soon as it reaches its destination and kept separate from all livestock for 5 days after entering the United States. Note: There is no documentation required to meet FMD requirements."[112]
THE OTHER SCREWWORM RULE — the TAHC prohibition on moving a warm-blooded animal, pets included, out of an Infested Zone once it is ashore — is not a parasite treatment and is not an entry condition, and it is recorded under `other_health` for both species rather than here.[1011]
Identification
CDC requires dogs entering the United States to be microchipped, and the chip number must appear on any accompanying rabies documentation. A territory may accept a collar tag for its own local rule, but that does not replace the federal microchip requirement for a dog arriving from abroad.[24]
"If your dog's microchip number starts with a number other than 9, be sure to check with your veterinarian that it is readable. If the microchip cannot be scanned on arrival for a dog that has been in a high-risk country, the dog may be denied entry and returned to the country of departure at the importer's expense."[4]
Texas asks only that the rabies certificate carry "identification information for the vaccinated animal" — it does not say what that information must be, and it names neither a microchip nor a tag nor a standard. The inherited federal layer is far stricter for a dog arriving from a foreign port, where CDC requires a microchip — any brand, but readable by a universal scanner — whose number appears on the rabies documentation. So chip the animal and put the number on the certificate: that satisfies both, and nothing weaker reliably satisfies the federal half. For a CAT there is no federal microchip requirement, and Texas sets no minimum — which leaves the identification of a cat genuinely undefined.[54]
Animals & vaccinations
Dogs
Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[56]
- Rabies — the only vaccination Texas requires of a dog. §169.32 names no other, and neither DSHS page lists distemper, parvovirus, hepatitis, leptospirosis or Bordetella as a condition of entry.
Cats
Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[56]
- Rabies — the only vaccination Texas requires of a cat, and the only one §169.32 names. No FVRCP, no feline leukaemia, no testing of any kind appears in the rule or on the DSHS pages.
Other health requirements
- Dogs
- CDC Dog Import Form — required for every dog entering the United States, including a US-vaccinated dog returning home. Submitted online before travel; carry the receipt.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[4]
- Dogs must be at least 6 months old.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[42]
- Dogs must appear healthy on arrival.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[4]
- Dogs that have been in a high-risk rabies country in the previous 6 months face additional requirements: a rabies serology/titer and, in some cases, a CDC import permit. Which countries those are is not a judgement call — see the note below for CDC's list and the eight destinations on this site that are on it.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[43]
- SCREWWORM CERTIFICATE — USDA/APHIS, and separate from anything CDC asks for. 9 CFR 93.600(a): "Dogs from any region of the world where screwworm is considered to exist may only be imported into the United States if they meet the requirements of paragraphs (a)(1) and (2)". Those are: "(1) Dogs must be accompanied by a certificate signed by a full-time salaried veterinary official of the region of origin stating that the dog has been inspected for screwworm within 5 days preceding its shipment to the United States" and "(2) The certificate must state that the dog is either free from screwworm or was found to be infested with screwworm and was held in quarantine and treated until free from screwworm prior to leaving the region of origin." READ THAT AS A CRUISER: it is not your own vet's certificate, it is a GOVERNMENT veterinary official's, it must be within FIVE DAYS of departure, and on many islands finding a full-time salaried government vet at short notice is the hard part. APHIS maintains the list of affected regions at aphis.usda.gov (Animal Health Status of Regions) and changes it by administrative action, so check it against your actual last port rather than assuming — this dataset does not reproduce the list. Cats are not covered: subpart F is headed "Dogs". The quoted paragraphs have been checked against the regulation: subpart F is now held in this repository, fetched from the eCFR XML API, and both quotes above appear in it verbatim.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
- ONCE ASHORE, THE TAHC MOVEMENT RULE REACHES A DOG — and unlike the screwworm certificate above it, which is federal and applies on arrival, this is a Texas rule that applies after you have cleared in. New World screwworm was confirmed in a calf in Zavala County on 3 June 2026, the first detection in Texas; NWS was last eradicated from the United States in 1966. Under 4 TAC §37.1 and §58.2 the TAHC Executive Director quarantines Infested Zones by order, adding some and releasing others week to week. The orders are not limited to livestock: "Warm-blooded animals located within Infested Zone 01 may not be moved outside of the zone without prior authorization from the Commission... To move warm-blooded animals outside of Infested Zone 01, the animal must be inspected and treated as required by the Commission and issued a permit or certificate for movement by a Commission representative... Unauthorized movement is prohibited and subject to administrative penalties and/or criminal prosecution." A dog is a warm-blooded animal — but it is caught by that general term rather than by any express mention, because TAHC's page does not name pets in the movement restriction itself ("all warm-blooded animals in an Infested Zone may not move out of the zone without prior authorization") and names them only in its monitoring, reporting and prevention advice. The document is a NWS Movement/Treatment certificate issued by TAHC or a NWS Certified Inspector, and it must accompany the animal. Inspections are scheduled through TAHC deployed inspectors on +1 512 714 1936. On 6 October 2026 TAHC listed movement restrictions "in parts of the following Texas counties: Brewster, Crockett, Edwards, Jeff Davis, Pecos, Presidio, Schleicher, Starr, Sutton, Terrell, Val Verde, Zapata" — all inland, so Galveston, Corpus Christi and South Padre were outside every zone. Zones change by order, so this is a snapshot rather than a rule. Check the live zone map before you drive inland from the boat.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1011]
- Cats
- Rabies vaccination and its certificate or passport are the whole of the Texas entry requirement for a cat, apart from the confinement rule below. No import permit, no CVI, no titre, no parasite treatment and no other vaccination is required by the state: §169.32 asks for nothing beyond the vaccination and the certificate, DSHS says in terms that "a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) is not required for dogs and cats entering Texas and no agency serves as a repository for CVIs for these species", and the words "dog" and "cat" do not occur anywhere in the TAHC rulebook that carries the state entry-permit requirement.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[5679]
- USDA APHIS writes its pet-import conditions for dogs. Its page states that "APHIS Veterinary Services has requirements only if your dog is coming from a country affected by foot-and mouth-disease (FMD) or screwworm", and the screwworm certificate and the FMD bathing and livestock-separation conditions it then sets out are each cast as a dog requirement. What follows for a cat is NOT established by anything cited here: no source on this page states that a cat is exempt from APHIS requirements, and none describes what a cat arriving from a foreign port is inspected for on arrival. Treat the cat side as undocumented rather than as an exemption.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
- A cat is the animal on a cruising boat most likely to meet §169.32's under-12-weeks confinement rule — "If the dog or cat is less than 12 weeks of age, the custodian shall confine the animal until 30 days subsequent to its initial vaccination." The inherited CDC six-month minimum keeps a puppy that young out of the United States altogether, while nothing federal cited here stops a kitten arriving. The rule is not the only route into confinement, and the other one does reach a dog: if the initial vaccination was given less than 30 days before arrival in the United States, the custodian must confine the animal for the balance of the 30 days whatever its age.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[564]
- ONCE ASHORE, THE TAHC MOVEMENT RULE REACHES A CAT — and this one is Texan, not federal. New World screwworm was confirmed in a calf in Zavala County on 3 June 2026, the first detection in Texas; NWS was last eradicated from the United States in 1966. Under 4 TAC §37.1 and §58.2 the TAHC Executive Director quarantines Infested Zones by order, adding some and releasing others week to week. The orders are not limited to livestock: "Warm-blooded animals located within Infested Zone 01 may not be moved outside of the zone without prior authorization from the Commission", and a cat is a warm-blooded animal. Moving one out of a zone requires TAHC authorisation, an inspection, treatment as required, and a NWS Movement/Treatment certificate issued by TAHC or a NWS Certified Inspector, which must accompany the animal; inspections are scheduled through TAHC deployed inspectors on +1 512 714 1936. On 6 October 2026 TAHC listed movement restrictions "in parts of the following Texas counties: Brewster, Crockett, Edwards, Jeff Davis, Pecos, Presidio, Schleicher, Starr, Sutton, Terrell, Val Verde, Zapata" — all inland, so Galveston, Corpus Christi and South Padre were outside every zone. Zones change by order, so this is a snapshot rather than a rule. Check the live zone map before you take the animal inland from the boat.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1011]
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IS HIGH RISK, AND THIS FILE SAID OTHERWISE UNTIL 2026-10-03. CDC's list is headed "These countries and political units are considered high risk for importing dog rabies into the United States" and it names the Dominican Republic. Eight destinations on this site are on that list: Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Suriname and Venezuela. The Bahamas, Turks & Caicos and the BVI are not on it, and neither is Nicaragua. US territories are not foreign countries for this purpose. The claim this replaces grouped the Dominican Republic with the not-high-risk islands and told a cruiser returning from there that the titer "does not normally apply" — it does, and a US-vaccinated dog also needs the Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form endorsed before it leaves the United States, which cannot be arranged afterwards.[3]
Sources
- 1
9 CFR 93.600, Importation of dogs — subpart F. Paragraph (a) carries the screwworm certificate requirement; paragraph (b) the tapeworm inspection for livestock-handling dogs. Text read from the 2026 annual edition. — United States — Code of Federal Regulations, Title 9 (Animals and Animal Products), APHIS/USDA
- 2
Bringing a Dog into the United States — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- 3
High-Risk Countries for Dog Rabies — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- 4
Frequently Asked Questions on Dog Importations — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- 5
Texas Administrative Code, Title 25, Part 1, Chapter 169, Subchapter A — Rabies Control and Eradication, as published by DSHS. §169.31 Interstate Movement of Dogs and Cats into Texas; §169.32 International Movement of Dogs and Cats into Texas (both last amended effective 31 March 2013); §169.34 Statewide Quarantine. — Texas Department of State Health Services, Zoonosis Control
- 6
Pet Entry Requirements — Entry Requirements for Bringing Dogs and Cats into Texas — Texas Department of State Health Services, Zoonosis Control
- 7
Animal Import and Export Requirements — Texas Department of State Health Services, Zoonosis Control
- 8
Animal Movement — Texas Entry Requirements, Interstate & Intrastate Movement, International Export and Import — Texas Animal Health Commission
- 9
- 10
New World Screwworms — current situation, Infested Zones and movement requirements — Texas Animal Health Commission
- 11
Executive Director Order Declaring Animal Movement Restrictions due to New World Screwworm in Uvalde and Zavala Counties (Infested Zone 01) — Texas Animal Health Commission, Office of the Executive Director
- 12
Bring a Pet Dog into the United States — USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services
- 13
Import Alert — New World Screwworm Restrictions for Live Animals Originating from or Transiting Mexico — USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services
- 14
Animal Health Status of Regions — the list of regions APHIS considers affected with screwworm, cited by 9 CFR 93.600(a) — USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services
Last checked October 2026 · 2 high-priority open questions · Sources & questions
What the dots mean
confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer. official-backed, awaiting human reviewconfidence: Conflicting. Sources disagree — verify before you rely on it. sources disagreeconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet. not yet documented· How we grade