Eliot Kaplan, DVM
In March of 2003, a fourteen-member panel made up mostly of specialists, commissioned by the American Animal Hospital Association, came up with new guidelines for the vaccination of dogs. The big change is their recommendation with respect to vaccination against parvovirus enteritis, canine distemper, and infectious canine hepatitis.
It is still advised for puppies to receive the vaccinations against the above diseases starting at 6-8 weeks of age and repeating the vaccinations every 3-4 weeks until the puppies reach 12-14 weeks of age. The dogs are then vaccinated one year following their final puppy vaccinations. What has changed is that it is now recommended that after this point, the dogs only need to be vaccinated against the mentioned disease EVERY THREE years instead of annually. Through studies and experience it has been found that with the high quality vaccines that are now available for dogs, every three years is more than sufficient to keep our canine friends protected.
What about annually testing dogs for antibody levels to determine if vaccination is necessary? The panel suggests that this is not needed-why not? Because their research has already shown that vaccinating dogs every three years is very effective against disease. In addition, checking antibody levels can be very deceptive. It has been shown that animals can have a very low level of antibodies against a disease, but when they are in fact challenged with the disease they do not contract it because their immune protection against the disease is still sufficient. Hence, testing antibody levels can be very unreliable.
Every veterinarian has to decide for him or herself whether or not to adopt these new guidelines. But many veterinary colleges adopted these guidelines several years ago and have had no problems as a result. And if anything, vaccinating dogs less often decreases the likelihood of vaccinosis, a disease actually caused by vaccination. Of course, annual check-ups should still be considered mandatory. |
