Saralyn Smith-Carr, PhD; Auburn University
Panel:
William Truesdale, DVM;
Director of the AKC Canine Health Foundation;
John Hamel – Humane
Society
Many controversial issues surround the use of vaccines
in the dog. New vaccine technology has led to an increase in the number of vaccines
available for prevention of infectious disease in susceptible pets. However,
risk of disease rather than availability should be considered when determining which vaccines are used in a vaccination program. The American Veterinary Medical Association has designated core and non-core vaccines
for dogs and cats to provide guidance to the veterinary practitioner. Core vaccines
are those needed by all cats and dogs while non-core vaccines are recommended based on increased risk of exposure to an infectious
agent (i.e., high risk geographic area, dogs to be boarded, hunting dogs, etc.).
An assortment of vaccines are available that are
in both core and non-core vaccine categories. Therefore, the type of vaccine
that is administered is also an issue of divergence. The types of vaccines available
are modified live virus, killed virus or bacteria, subunit, and recombinant vaccines for incorporation into the vaccine program
for each individual pet. Reasons for choice of a particular vaccine are efficacy,
availability and avoidance of predictable adverse vaccine reactions such as abortion caused by administering live virus vaccines
to pregnant animals.
Unpredictable adverse reactions to vaccines are
another problem that both pet owners and veterinarians face today. Most adverse
reactions such as hypersensitivity reactions can be successfully treated or minor reactions such as soreness, fever and lethargy
disappear within a day without treatment. More severe adverse reactions occur
that are linked to recent vaccination of the pet. Injection-site sarcomas and
autoimmune disease are two such adverse reactions linked to vaccine administration that may lead to the death of the animal. Injection-site sarcomas in cats became a problem with the advent of feline leukemia
virus vaccine, a subunit vaccine, and rabies vaccine, a killed virus vaccine that contain an aluminum-based adjuvant. Adjuvants are used in vaccine formulation to boost the immune response to the vaccine
proteins (antigens). Hypersensitivity reactions leading to urticaria and wheal
formation have been associated with the leptospira bacterin. Therefore adverse
reactions are an important consideration in vaccine selection.
Vaccine programs along with improved sanitation
have been very beneficial in the prevention of transmission and spread of severe infectious diseases. Therefore the abandonment of these programs would be neither wise nor advised. A better approach would be to evaluate how often a vaccine should be administered. This would decrease the frequency of vaccines that potentially lead to adverse reactions. Yearly vaccinations have been the standard of health in the past; however, with the development of the
more advanced vaccines, protection may last longer. Therefore the issue of controversy
is duration of immunity of core vaccines. Reports from the veterinary investigators
have indicated that the duration of immunity of the core vaccines are longer than one year.
These same investigators have expressed the view that all canine core vaccines except rabies should be administered
every three years instead of yearly. The Auburn College of Veterinary Medicine
decided to conduct their own investigation into the duration of immunity of three of the core vaccines recommended for dogs,
canine adenovirus, canine distemper virus, and canine parvovirus vaccines.
Modified Live – Very durable for 1-5 years
Killed Virus – Very safe. Safe during pregnancy and in puppies 4 weeks of age – duration less than 1 year.
Bacterin,
Lepto – Adverse reactions reported such as soreness, fever, and lethargy, which disappear within a day without treatment. More severe adverse reactions are injection-site sarcomas and autoimmune disease that
may lead to the death of the animal. Duration is less than 1 year.
Puppies – Recommendation is the 1st
vaccination at 8 weeks, 2nd at 10 weeks, and the one-year booster.
The Animal Veterinary Medical Association is of
the opinion that the core vaccines should be given yearly. This belief was reinforced
by John Hamel’s statement that a veterinarian encounters a different situation. If they do not vaccinate annually, following
the AVMA recommendation, and the dog contracts one of these diseases, they may face litigation. The American Animal Hospital Association, however, recommends that core vaccines should be given every
3 years.
Auburn University tested a group of adult dogs for 3 years, and puppies for 4 years, for adenovirus,
distemper and parvo. Some of the dogs were client owned dogs and some were
from a foxhound kennel near by. The puppies were given two vaccines and then
checked them for acceptable titers. They could not provide a conclusive determination
on puppies due to the fact that most of them were lost before the 4-year study was over.
Only four remained through the entire study.
In the adult dogs tested, 85.5% had acceptable titers
at the end of the first year; 72.6% had acceptable titers at the end of the second year; and 50% had acceptable titers at
the end of the third year. The dogs from the foxhound kennel did not do as well
as the client owned dogs. They had poor response to both distemper and parvo. It is not known if this was due to genetics or possibly high stress. If these dogs were removed them from the study, 86% of the dogs had acceptable titers at the end of the
second year. However, not one dog at the beginning of the fourth year had come
down with any of the above diseases.
Vaccines against infections for which a dog is not
“at risk” should be excluded from the vaccination protocol. It is
also strongly recommended that the Lyme vaccination, if given, be administered separately.
AWS Partners’
recommended resources:
http://www.akcchf.org/research/articles/whitepapers/vacissues.pdf
http://www.naturalrearing.com/newsandviews/articles/Vaccination_Protocol.htm
http://canine-epilepsy.com/vaccination.html
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/jul03/030701o.asp
http://www.msu.edu/~silvar/vax.htm
