Does my dog need a “booster
shot” for rabies, distemper, and parvovirus every year?
The American Animal Hospital
Association, The American Veterinary Medical Association, the
American Association of Feline Practitioners, and Texas A&M School
of Veterinary Medicine, as well as the Texas Department of Public
Health have revised their recommendations for pet vaccinations.
Annual
vaccinations for diseases like Rabies, Distemper and Parvovirus are
no longer recommended.
The duration of
immunity for these vaccines has been scientifically proven to be
over 7 years, and probably the life of the pet. More importantly, it
has been proven that re-administration of these vaccines does not
make the patient more immune. The immunity induced by the first
vaccine blocks the next vaccine. The client is paying for something
with no effect; except that the pet is being exposed the unnecessary
risk of an adverse reaction.
Q Does my dog need Corona virus
vaccine?
The American Animal Hospital Association
released the 2003 Vaccination Guidelines for dogs. Corona virus
vaccine was not recommended. Texas A&M Veterinary School has not
recommended Corona vaccine for over 15 years.
Corona virus causes a self- limiting
diarrhea only in dogs less than 8 weeks of age. It is a very rare
disease. At Texas A&M they have only seen one case in over 10 years.
Scientists have never been able to
demonstrate that corona virus causes disease in adult dogs. Adult
dogs are immune to corona virus whether they are vaccinated or not.
Vaccination of adult dogs provides no benefit.
Q. Some
Vets recommend Lyme Disease and Leptospirosis vaccines
for my dog every year. Are all these
vaccinations really necessary
in Texas?
The American Animal Hospital Association recently released the 2003
Vaccination Guidelines for dogs. Leptospirosis and Lyme disease
vaccines were listed as ”non- core vaccines”, not recommended in
parts of the country like Texas where dogs are not at risk or very
low risk of contracting these diseases. Texas A&M Veterinary School
does not recommend these vaccines.
Leptospirosis is a kidney infection
contracted from water contaminated by wildlife. There are an average
of 12 cases per year in dogs in Texas. Although people can get
Leptospirosis from contaminated water, there is little risk of
contracting it from an infected dog. Leptospirosis is the component
of vaccines that is most likely to cause an adverse reaction, and it
should not be given to dogs less than 12 weeks of age.
Lyme disease is a tick- transmitted
disease, found in the New England States, Michigan and Minnesota. In
Texas we do not have the reservoir deer mouse and Ixodid Tick
relationship necessary for Lyme disease transmission. Texas A&M
University has never seen a case of Lyme disease in a dog from
Texas. What confuses the situation is a similar disease we do have
in Texas, Southern Tick- Associated Rash Illness or STARI. Unless
you travel with your pet to the Northeast, Lyme vaccine offers no
benefit to you or your pet.
Q:
My cat died from a Vaccine Associated Fibrosarcomas.
Are cat vaccines safe?
Over ten years ago
Veterinarians discovered that cats
were developing cancer at the site of
vaccinations. An Injection Site Fibrosarcoma or Vaccine Associated
Sarcoma (VAS) is a fatal type of cancer caused by vaccines. Even
with surgery, radiation treatments, and chemotherapy, very few cats
live longer than three years.
Adjuvant is put
in vaccines to stimulate the immune system. Adjuvanted vaccines have
been shown to be 5 times more likely to create VAS, than non-
adjuvanted vaccines. Adjuvanted vaccines were declared a carcinogen
for cats by the World Health Association in 1999.
To prevent VAS
the AVMA-VAS Task Force as well as the American Association of
Feline Practitioners and Texas A&M University recommend reduced
vaccine schedules, and safer alternative vaccines like non-
adjuvanted vaccines and intranasal vaccines. Over 22,000 cats in
the U.S. die from VAS every year, many from vaccinations they did
not even need. And yet, few Veterinarians, less than 10%, offer the
safer alternatives.
Some Vets reccomend
Feline Aids, FIV Vaccine, and Feline Infectious Peritonitis, FIP
vaccine. Does my cat need these vaccines?
When Feline Aids or FIV vaccine was introduced it was heralded as a
major break through. Scientists have tried unsuccessfully for over
two decades to develop a human AIDs vaccine. Is the Feline AIDs
vaccine too good to be true?
There are 5
Clades or types of Feline FIV viruses. The vaccine contains two
Clades, A & D. The Clade that causes FIV in the US is Clade B. The
cross protection is poor. This is an adjuvanted vaccine so it is at
risk of causing a vaccine-associated sarcoma. The American
Association of Feline Practitioners wrote the USDA and asked them
not to license the vaccine.
Feline corona
virus is a normal virus of healthy cats. Rarely it mutates to become
the virulent FIP virus. Each mutation is unique. They are not the
same as the virus in the vaccine. Efficacy has not been
substantiated by independent studies.
Why would the
USDA license vaccines that do not contain the same virus that causes
the disease? The American Veterinary Medical Association wrote to
the USDA Center for Veterinary Medicine in 1998 and requested that
they revise their standards for licensing vaccines. The USDA
continuse to license vaccines whose efficacy is unsubstantiated by
independent studies, like Feline Ringworm vaccine and Giardia
vaccine.
