Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

A few people have emailed privately asking for an opinion on the West Nile vaccine available at feed stores and so thought I would post my *opinion* publicly.  YMMV.  The vaccine available at feed stores is the Merial product, not the Fort Dodge.  We use the Fort Dodge product (killed virus) exclusively in the practice because it still has a better track record for prevention of the disease, as well as better reported and personal experience of adverse reactions.  I have not used the Merial, but have seen a fair number of reports on veterinary lists of high fevers, +/- laminitis.  I’m happy with the Fort Dodge product, and so is my employer (who actually buys the stuff), so that’s what we use.

 

Point two---according to Merial, the recombitek product is equally as effective at prevention, and I have no reason to doubt that.  However, that is assuming the vaccine you buy from the feedstore is of high quality, and administered correctly.  IM administration isn’t difficult, but you need to be able to *really* trust the feed store.  I personally know of one store where the vaccine is just kept on a back room shelf, NOT refrigerated, because the frig is full of cold drinks and everyone’s lunch.  I know of another place where the vaccine arrived and was promptly refrigerated, but had arrived in a regular shipping container, not one with ColdPaks inside.  Thus the vaccine is useless and the consumer thinks they have protected their horses adequately, when they haven’t.

 

Point three---WNV vaccine is still not approved to be sold over the counter, and while Merial insists that they only sell to vets, the evidence is to the contrary for whatever reason.  However, say an owner buys WNV vaccine over the counter and administers it to an insured horse whose policy requires the horse be adequately vaccinated against endemic disease.  Coincidentally, the horse dies a month later of some problem or another.  You cannot produce proof that the horse was vaccinated by law by a veterinarian for WNV, so what do you think the odds are the insurance company is going to deny the insurance claim because you tried to save a few bucks by vaccinating yourself?  I know this seems unlikely, but I fill out half a dozen insurance claim forms a week, and every form wants to know exactly when “a licensed veterinarian” first vaccinated against West Nile and when boosters were administered.  They don’t ask specifically about other vaccines, just West Nile.

 

Point four—there are several WNV vaccines being sold, not Fort Dodge or Merial, with no efficacy trials or data behind them whatsoever.  Could be a bottle of grapefruit juice for all you know.  At least one horse here in So Cal has died because it was owner-vaccinated by something she bought over the counter as “vaccine”.

 

So, yes, I’m biased because I’m a veterinarian.  However, my opinion is that trying to vaccinate against WNV right now is penny wise and pound foolish.  Most of the vets I know won’t charge a farm call if you can gather together a reasonable number of horses to vaccinate at the same time.  The cost isn’t that different, at least in this area, the vets charge $28 a dose for what the feed stores are selling for $22-26 a dose.

 

This doesn’t count as a statistical survey, but the regular clients in our practice have been vaccinating with Fort Dodge for the past two years, and we haven’t had one clinical case among them, despite deaths all around the area outside our practice clientele.  We did have two deaths, both in totally unvaccinated horses.  You do the math.

 

JMO.

 

Susan Garlinghouse, DVM