RNATT: the rabies test that gates your pet's flight

If you are planning to bring a cat or dog into Singapore, one test will shape your entire schedule more than any other. It is not the health certificate, the parasite treatment, or the import licence. It is the rabies neutralising antibody titre test, almost always written as the RNATT.

The RNATT is a blood test that confirms a rabies vaccination has actually produced protection. It looks simple on paper. In practice it carries two mandatory waiting periods stacked back to back, and those waits are the reason a pet import from many countries takes roughly six to seven months from start to finish.

This post explains what the RNATT measures, the exact order the steps must happen in, how to read the two gates that govern the timeline, and the mistakes that quietly reset the whole clock.

What the RNATT actually measures

RNATT stands for rabies neutralising antibody titre test. It is a serology test, which means it measures something in the blood rather than testing for an active infection.

Specifically, it measures the level of rabies antibodies present after vaccination. The point is not to diagnose disease. The point is to prove that the vaccine worked and that the animal has mounted a protective immune response.

The result comes back as a titre value in international units per millilitre. The threshold that matters is straightforward:

A passing result is a titre of 0.5 IU/ml or higher. Anything below that does not pass, regardless of how recently the animal was vaccinated.

A passing result is what unlocks the next stage of the import. A failing result sends you back to vaccinate again and retest, which is where timelines tend to fall apart.

The sequence that cannot be reordered

The single most common source of wasted months is doing the right steps in the wrong order. The RNATT only counts if everything before it happened correctly, in this exact sequence:

1. Microchip first. The animal must be implanted with an ISO 11784/11785 compatible microchip, and that microchip number must be recorded before anything else. The microchip is the identity anchor for every document that follows. If it is implanted or recorded after vaccination, the paperwork does not line up.

2. Rabies vaccination second. The rabies vaccine is given only after the microchip is in place and recorded. A vaccination given before the chip is logged generally cannot be used.

3. Wait at least 28 days. After the vaccination date, you must wait a minimum of 28 days before drawing blood for the RNATT. This gives the immune system time to produce a measurable antibody response.

4. Draw blood and send to an approved lab. Once the 28-day wait has passed, blood is drawn and sent to a laboratory approved by Singapore's Animal & Veterinary Service (AVS) for the titre test.

5. Wait 90 days after a passing result. Once the lab confirms a passing titre of 0.5 IU/ml or higher, a further 90-day waiting period begins before the pet may be exported to or enter Singapore.

Miss the order, and the most expensive thing you lose is not money. It is time.

The two gates: 28 days and 90 days

The timeline pressure comes from two separate waiting periods that do not overlap. Understanding what each one is for makes it much easier to plan around them.

The 28-day gate (before the blood draw)

The 28-day wait sits between the vaccination and the blood draw. Its purpose is biological. The body needs time after vaccination to generate antibodies, and drawing blood too soon risks a falsely low reading even in a perfectly healthy animal.

This is why the rule is a minimum of 28 days. Drawing blood on day 20 or day 25 does not give you an early result. It gives you an invalid one. The sample cannot be used, and you have to wait, draw again, and pay for the test a second time.

The 90-day gate (after a passing result)

The 90-day wait is the longer of the two, and it begins only once a passing titre is confirmed. It is a fixed quarantine-style observation window built into the import rules for Schedule II and Schedule III countries. During these 90 days the animal stays where it is; the clock simply has to run.

There is no way to shorten this period and no way to pay to skip it. It is the largest single block of time in the entire process.

Why this combination is the longest constraint

Add the pieces together and the math becomes clear. You have at least 28 days before the blood can even be drawn, then several days to a couple of weeks of laboratory turnaround, then a full 90 days after the result passes. Stacked on top of vaccination scheduling, document preparation, and travel arrangements, this is what pushes a typical import to around six to seven months.

Nothing else in the process comes close. The RNATT, with its two gates, is the constraint that everything else has to be planned around.

A worked timeline

The dates below assume a clean run with no failed tests and a prompt lab turnaround. They are illustrative, using a microchip date of 1 January as the starting point, to show how the gates compound.

Event	Earliest date
Microchip implanted and recorded (ISO 11784/11785)	1 January
Rabies vaccination administered	1 January
Earliest blood draw for RNATT (vaccination + 28 days)	29 January
Sample sent to AVS-approved laboratory	29 January
Passing result returned (titre 0.5 IU/ml or higher)	early-to-mid February
90-day wait begins (from passing result)	mid February
Earliest eligible export or entry to Singapore	mid May

That is the best case. Any slip at an earlier stage moves every date after it. A single mistimed blood draw can push the eligible entry date back by months, because the 90-day gate cannot start until a valid passing result exists.

When the RNATT is not required

Not every animal needs the serology. Singapore groups exporting countries into categories, and the RNATT requirement depends on which one applies.

• Schedule I countries are considered rabies-free. This group includes the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Pets coming from these places do not require the rabies serology test at all, which removes both gates and dramatically shortens the timeline.
• Schedule II and Schedule III countries do require a passing RNATT followed by the 90-day wait. This is where the long timeline applies.

Before you start, confirm which schedule your origin country falls under. The difference between a Schedule I import and a Schedule II or III import is the difference between a relatively quick move and a half-year project.

How the clock gets reset

The RNATT is unforgiving in a specific way: most failure modes do not just cost a retest, they restart the longest part of the schedule. These are the ones that catch people out most often.

Drawing blood too early

The most frequent mistake is drawing blood before the 28-day wait is complete. A sample taken on day 26 is not slightly early, it is invalid. You wait again, draw again, and pay again, and the 90-day gate is delayed by however long the redo takes.

A low titre

Sometimes the blood is drawn correctly but the result comes back below 0.5 IU/ml. The animal simply did not produce enough antibodies. The remedy is to re-vaccinate and repeat the test, which adds another vaccination, another minimum wait, another lab turnaround, and only then the 90-day countdown. This is the single most timeline-destroying outcome, and it is partly outside your control.

Lapsed documentation

The microchip record, vaccination certificate, and lab result form a chain. If a rabies vaccination is allowed to expire mid-process, or a document is missing the correct microchip number, the chain breaks. A lapsed booster can require restarting the vaccination-and-titre cycle from the beginning.

The throughline is consistency. Get the order right, time the blood draw correctly, keep vaccinations current, and the clock only has to run once.

Where this fits in the wider import

The RNATT is the longest single constraint, but it is not the only requirement. A few others apply regardless of how the serology goes:

• An AVS import licence is still required for the animal.
• Goods and Services Tax of 9% applies to pet imports.
• From 1 April 2026, owners can no longer clear their pets themselves at the Changi Animal & Plant Quarantine (CAPQ) facility. An AVS-recognised pet agent is required to handle clearance.

That last point is worth flagging early in your planning, because the agent arrangement needs to be in place before arrival, not after.

If you are mapping out a move and want a second pair of eyes on your dates, our consultation service can walk through the sequence with you and pin the blood-draw and entry dates to your specific origin country and schedule.

A note on who we are

MAINECOON CATTERY SG is an AVS-licensed pet shop (licence AS24E00026), registered with ACRA as a partnership under UEN 53447114E. We also run a sister Maine Coon cattery, which you can find at Maine Coon SG.

To be transparent about our standing: our application for AVS pet-agent recognition is in progress. We are not yet able to describe ourselves as an AVS-recognised pet agent, and we would rather say so plainly than overstate it. As the 1 April 2026 clearance rule takes effect, that recognition matters, and we will update our status as it advances.

The takeaway

The RNATT is the test that gates your pet's flight because it carries the two longest fixed waits in the entire import: at least 28 days before the blood draw, and a full 90 days after a passing result. Sequence it correctly, time the draw precisely, and keep every document current, and the process moves as fast as the rules allow. Get any of those wrong, and the clock starts over.

Plan the RNATT first and let the rest of the timeline fall in behind it.

If you would like help timing your pet's serology and import, contact us and we will talk it through.