[bat rabies in the UK]
It didn't, but that doesn't seem to be a form of rabies likely to
make an epidemic.
http://www.who-rabies-bulletin.org/a...s_Figures.aspx
An epidemic would be terrible. But even in the US, where it's pretty rare
for a human, or a human's pets, to get infected, we go to a great deal of
trouble to immunize our pets.

The point of the WHO bulletin is that transmission of that strain of
rabies to anything that isn't a bat is so rare that no epidemic is
possible. So there's no need to immunize against it. I doubt the
US immunizes against it either.


Pets are only exempt from quarantine if they've been immunized. Since
there's much less incentive for a pet owner to avoid immunization than
to avoid quarantine, the chances are that the new regimen will be more
effective than the old one.
Someone could always fake the necessary documents. Fraud happens
everywhere, but in this case the stakes are pretty high.

Pet passports don't just involve paper documents, you'd have to fake
a registered microchip. If anybody's going to dodge the requirements
they'll do it the old-fashioned way by dosing their pet with Valium
and stuffing it in a box. I doubt it happens very often. The main
risk might be with animals that it's illegal to import anyway.

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