Exporting Horses to Mexico Made Easier

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(American Horse Council release)

Due to the current Contagious Equine Metritis outbreak, the United States and Mexico have been in negotiations over the protocol requirements for exporting horses from the U.S. into Mexico. In the midst of these negotiations, a statement requiring that horses have permanent ID using microchips was overlooked and inadvertently included in the new protocols. This statement has since been removed from the protocol requirements. Permanent ID, such as microchips or tattoos, is not required for export into Mexico. This will, however, be recorded if such form of identification is available.

A recent article in a prominent horse magazine reported that microchips were now mandatory if exporting a horse to Mexico. The American Horse Council checked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the department has confirmed that this is not the case and that the mistake was quickly corrected.  Again, microchips are not a mandatory requirement for exporting horses into Mexico.

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