A network device may receive, from a first neighbor network device, information indicating that the network device is to remove a bit indexed explicit replication (BIER) header from a multicast packet prior to transmitting the multicast packet to the first neighbor network device. The network device may receive the multicast packet from a second neighbor network device, where the multicast packet includes the BIER header and is to be transmitted to the first neighbor network device, and where the network device, the first neighbor network device, and the second neighbor network device are included in a same BIER domain. The network device may remove the BIER header from the multicast packet, and may transmit the multicast packet to the first neighbor network device after removing the BIER header from the multicast packet.