1. Vaccination: How Necessary and How Often
Paula Boyden BVetMed MRCVS
Veterinary Director
Dogs Trust

2. Disease Control Minimise risk of infection: Good husbandry
Hygiene measures
Vaccination

3. Vaccination is not an excuse for poor husbandry!

5. People
Hand washing
Personal Gels
Clothing

6. How to Wash Your Hands 6

7. Why Vaccinate? No specific treatment available
generally viral…..most are potentially fatal
Treatable but potentially fatal e.g. Leptospirosis
bacterial

8. Is Vaccination appropriate?
May be other alternative control measures
eradication by removing infected individuals
Treatment with appropriate therapy
e.g. antibiotics

9. Aims of Vaccination Ideally... Eradicate disease Prevent infection
Protect against disease
Sometimes limiting clinical signs is the best we can do

10. Limitations of Vaccination
Disease management factors
Carrier states: FCV, FHV
Challenge pressure
Immunocompetence
Vaccine handling – best practice

11. High and Low Levels of Infection
Symptoms
Immunity
High infection
levels
Excretion
starts
Low infection
levels
Time

12. Factors Affecting Immunity
1. Health status
2. Nutritional status
3. Genetic factors
4. Stress
5. Concurrent drug therapy
Immunity can be stimulated/boosted by vaccination

13. Live Vaccines ‘Better’ stimulation of immune system
Very rapid response
Usually single dose
More persistent level of immunity

14. Killed Vaccines Generally require two injections for primary course
Require more frequent boosters
NB - both must pass the same safety tests

15. Primary Course Vaccination
Antibody
Titre
Live
Killed
Age (weeks)

16. Naturally Acquired Immunity
Active
following infection (antibodies & CMI)
Passive
MDA
via dam’s milk (90%)
via placental transfer

17. Primary Course Vaccination
Antibody
Titre
Live
Killed
MDA
Age (weeks)

18. Maternally Derived Antibody
Infection
Vaccination
High infection
levels

19. Maternally Derived Antibody
Vaccination
Low infection
level

20. Pet Vaccination: The Main Concerns
Do vaccines cause such significant side effects that we are doing more harm than good?
Do we need to revaccinate every year?
What is the risk of disease in the unvaccinated animal?
What is the duration of immunity (DOI)?
Do we need to vaccinate every animal with every available vaccine?
Core vs non-core vaccines

21. Safety: What do we know? General Transient, mild lethargy / malaise
Allergy / anaphylaxis
Specific
‘Blue eye’
Live CAV1 vaccines - no longer used in UK

22. Safety: POOCH Study Objective Method
To determine whether a temporal association exists between canine vaccination and ill health
Method
General health questionnaire
3966 useable records (2002 M, 1964 F)

23. POOCH - results Overall Signs of illness 18% (717)
Recently vacc. with signs of illness 16.4% (142)
Not recently vacc. with signs of illness 18.8% (506)

24. POOCH Conclusions
No association between recent vaccination and ill health in dogs
Statistically the frequency of ill health in dogs recently vaccinated or not is equivalent
No association between vaccination at any time point and ill health
Ranging from within 1 month to within 12 months
Older dogs have more reported signs, but taking this into account ……..
No association between the number of vaccinations received and ill health in dogs

25. Core vs Non Core
Core Vaccines: Regarded as essential for all cases regardless of individual lifestyle
Non Core: Given following an assessment of that individual’s risk of disease based on lifestyle and known risk factors.

26. Canine Core vs Non-core
‘Core’ Vaccines
‘Non-Core’ Vaccines
Canine Parvovirus
Canine Distemper Virus
Infectious Canine Hepatitis
Leptospirosis*
Canine Parainfluenza Virus
Bordetella bronchiseptica
Rabies
(Canine coronavirus)
(Canine Herpesvirus)

27. Feline Core vs Non-core
‘Core’ Vaccines
‘Non-Core’ Vaccines
FPV (FPL)
FCV
FHV
FeLV*
Chlamydophila
Rabies Bb

28. Why are boosters necessary?
Immunity is not lifelong to all diseases and therefore boosters will be required at intervals to maintain the high level of protection.
The manufacturers recommended booster intervals are designed to ensure, as far as is practically possible, that all animals under field conditions (even ones that do not respond as well to vaccination) maintain a level of protective immunity.

29. Response to Vaccination
Mean
Immune Response
No. Dogs
95%
99%

30. Response to Vaccination
Minimum Protective titre
6 years p.v.
6 weeks p.v.
<20
>20,480
Immune Response

31. Thank You