What Everyone Needs to Know About Canine Vaccines

[MeSheLL]

What Everyone Needs to Know About Canine Vaccines

and Vaccination Programs

Ron Schultz, PhD; University of Wisconsin - Madison



For many veterinary practitioners canine vaccination programs have been "practice management tools" rather than medical procedures. Thus, it is not surprising that attempts to change the vaccines and vaccination programs based on scientific information have created great controversy and unique methods of resistance to the proposed changes have been and are being developed. For some practitioners the issues are not duration of immunity for the vaccines, nor which vaccines are needed for the pet, instead it is felt that every licensed vaccine should be given to every pet on an annual or more often basis. Ironically this is fostered by the fact that multivalent products with 7 or more vaccine components can be purchased for the same price or less than a product with one or two vaccine components. A "more is better" philosophy prevails with regard to pet vaccines. On many occasions practitioners say that "I know many of the vaccines I administer probably aren't needed but it won't hurt to give them and who knows the animal may need them some time during their life because of unknown risk." I have also been told by many practitioners that "I believe the duration of immunity for some vaccines like distemper, parvovirus and hepatitis is many years, but until I find another way to get the client into my office on a regular basis I'm going to keep recommending vaccines annually." Annual vaccination has been and remains the single most important reason why most pet owners bring their pets for an annual or more often "wellness visit." The importance of these visits for the health of the pet is exceptional. Therefore, dog owners must understand the vaccines are not the reason why their dog needs an annual wellness visit. Another reason for the reluctance to change current vaccination programs is many practitioners really don't understand the principles of vaccinal immunity. A significant number of practitioners believe:



1) the annual revaccination recommendation on the vaccine label is evidence the product provides immunity for (only) one year. - Not True



2) that they are legally required to vaccinate annually and if they don't they will not be covered by A VMA liability insurance if the animal develops a vaccine preventable disease - Not True. Furthermore, certain companies will not provide assistance if practitioners don't vaccinate

annually with core vaccines. Not True - In fact most of the companies have now demonstrated

their core products provide at least 3 years of immunity .



3) that not revaccinating will cause the animal to become susceptible soon (days or a few weeks) after the one vear. - Not True



4) if the animal is not revaccinated at or before one year the "whole vaccination program needs to be started again". - Not True



5) if they don't continue to revaccinate annually, diseases like canine distemper, canine parvovirus and infectious canine hepatitis (CA V-I) will "reappear and cause widespread disease similar to what was seen prior to the development of vaccines for these diseases." - Not True



6) that if the revaccination "doesn't help, it won't hurt." - Not True



7) that giving a vaccine annually that has a duration of immunity of 3 or more years provides much better immunity than if the product is given only once during the three years. - Not True In fact, there are regional/state rabies programs that suggest annual rabies vaccination programs provide better protection than revaccination once every three years regardless of whether a 1 year or 3 year rabies product is used. - Not True



8) that parvovirus vaccines only provide six months of immunity, thus they must give them semi- annually and the CPV -2 vaccines need to be given with coronavirus vaccine to prevent enteritis. - Not True



9) "It's much cheaper to revaccinate the pet annually than it is to treat the disease the animal will develop because it didn't get revaccinated annually." The "better safe tha