Heartworm?

As far s I can find out Heartworm Dirofilaria immitis is not endemic in the UK.   Some lungworms are.

http://inpractice.bmj.com/content/27/3/147.abstract

It might just have been a condition which had to be applied due to being imported.

Quite probable ANHBUC

I recently imported two puppies from the UK, West Country area.   They arrived with heartworm tablets which had to be given monthly for six months.   We dont have heartworm here so Im very surprised you have it in the UK.   Is it in certain areas of the country, how does a dog become infected, how common is it?

in respect of your questions: it is not known in the UK (but very prevalent in Australia, America and I think more Mediterranean parts of Europe (maybe). In these areas if a dog isn't on prevention it has a high risk. Dogs are infected by being bitten by a mosquito that has bitten another infected dog and is carrying larval heartworms in the blood it has sucked- these are passed on to the new dog. The larvae go through several stages to grow to full adults (this takes about 6 months, hence the 6 month course of tablets). The adult worms are spaghetti sized and live in the heart itself and large blood vessels in the lungs, compromising heart function and eventually causing heart failure.

By the way, cats can also be infected, at about 1/10 the infection rate of dogs in the same area. The bummer with cats is that he treatment you can give dogs has a much higher risk of killing the treated cat.

Our cat's are in the UK, the worm tablets that our vet uses do treat Heartworm (but that's just the brand/type he prescribes).

I have never heard of heartworm in the Uk.

As others have said, it's just probably import precautions, regualations as they are being imported from Europe.

Lizards (captive bred at least) have no quarenteen into the Uk, unlike mammels.

People import from Europe/Canada & they come straight in with correct papers/reciepts. Cities species must have the correct paper work though.

not sure it's correct about no quarantine: the EU Pet Passport scheme has been downgraded such that dogs coming into the UK need only a rabies vaccination and a 21 day wait before entering the UK, rather than the blood test and six month wait previously required.AFAIK there is no change for animals coming from countries outside the EU

As for whether it's a good idea to make these changes... well, we can thank the EU when we get our first case of rabies...