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SWISS Live Animals

Regulations and Documentation

SWISS Live Animals Documentation Content

Regulations

Swiss WorldCargo considers the following rules and regulations for the live animal transportation:

  • Swiss WorldCargo has the authority to deny live animal shipments that do not comply with its regulations, the IATA Live Animal Regulations or any destination and country regulations.​
  • Swiss WorldCargo keep the right of replanning any live animal shipment to a different date or time in case the live animal regulations cannot be followed.
  • Swiss WorldCargo may deny shipments pending further review at acceptance and/or re-accommodate shipments for a different date or time while seeking answers. ​
  • As per IATA LAR 4.2 and Swiss Animal Welfare Law, SWISS will only accept live animals that fly the most direct route between origin and destination (in distance and in travelling time).
  • As a rule, Live Animals must not be carried on trucking services, only in exceptional cases.
  • Customers are responsible for compliance with all regulations, policies and restrictions for the destination state or/and country. ​

Shipper’s Certification for Live Animals

The Shipper’s Certification for Live Animals has to be filled in English by the shipper (not the forwarder) and must be issued and signed in two copies. It is important the common and scientific names are mentioned on the certification in order to ensure proper identification of the species contained during handling. Only for pet shipments (like e.g. domestic dogs and cats), as well as for laboratory animals, the common name alone is sufficient.

Download Shipper's Certification Document here. 

Health Certificate

Even if not mandatory by destination country, SWISS and Swiss WorldCargo require some kind of health certificate issued by an authorized veterinary for every shipment of live animals (in case of pets, this requirement can also be considered fulfilled by the signed fit-for-travel entry in the EU Pet Passport).

The health certificate needs to satisfy all requirements set by the destination country, but in excess of those shall not be older than 10 days in any case (exception: non-commercially shipped pets - 1 month). The health certificate fulfils the need for confirmation that the animal concerned is fit to travel by air, not infected by infectious diseases and not expected to suffer unnecessarily from that type of transportation and associated stress.

For shipments into the EU or Switzerland, special formats of health certificates might be required. Standard format health certificates must be used for some regulated species as described in the applicable EU regulation. As all EU countries and Switzerland share the same standard of those health certificates, the concerned species regulated by EU law are referred to as "harmonized species".