Use IPAFFS to notify the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) about imports from the EU to Great Britain (GB) of live animals and germinal products.

You must continue to use TRACES to notify APHA for imports into the UK from non-EU countries until 1 January 2021.

If you’re importing live animals and germinal products from the EU to Northern Ireland you must notify the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

You do not have to notify APHA of products of animal origin (POAO) coming into the UK from the EU unless there’s a safeguard measure in place.

You do not have to notify APHA of high risk food and feed not of animal origin (HRFNAO) coming into the UK from the EU.

Find out more about moving live animals or animal products as part of EU trade.

Register for IPAFFS

If you have registered for another Defra service, you can enrol into IPAFFS by signing into your service. Go to your manage account screen and enrol on the IPAFFS service using the ‘register for more services’ button.

If this is your first time using a Defra service, you’ll need a Government Gateway account to register your organisation.

You can use an existing Government Gateway account or create a new one. Each person must have a Government Gateway account that is personal to them. Do not share Gateway accounts.

If you’re the first person to register on behalf of a business or organisation you automatically become the organisation administrator for that business. You’ll have permission to invite and remove team members.

Make sure that you allocate at least one other team member to an organisation administrator role so you can share the account management.

Registration guides

Find out how to register if you’re a:

• sole trader (PDF, 287KB, 6 pages)
• limited company, public limited company, limited liability partnership or charity (PDF, 289KB, 7 pages)

When to submit a notification

You must submit your notification in IPAFFS 24 hrs before your consignment is due to arrive. You can submit your notification up to 30 days in advance.

What you need

You need to know:

• what you’re importing
• the date and the estimated time the consignment will arrive at the border control post
• which country it will come from and the country in which it is consigned if they are different
• the consignment’s destination

Updating a notification

You can update your notification in IPAFFS if you do not have all the details when you first submit it or if something changes at any time before your consignment arrives.

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