Vaccine Issues

[Trish Dowling <dowling@skyway.usask.ca>]

For those of you interested in vaccine issues, there are two recent veterinary articles worth getting your hands on:

Use of serologic testing to assess immune status of companion animals. Ian Tizared and Yawei Ni. Journal of the 
American Veterinary Medical Association, July 1, 1998: vol 213, page 54-60.

Vaccination of dogs and cats: General principles and duration of immunity. Stephen Kurth and John Ellis. Candian 
Veterinary Journal, July 1998: vol 39, page 423426.

I was taught by Dr Tizard and I work with Dr Ellis, and I respect both of their opinions. Interestingly, in Tizard's 
article, he mentions that serological results (ie, titers) from rabies vaccines are not predictive of the animal's 
resistance to challenge with rabies, and the USDA will not approve rabies vaccines based on titers in test animals. 
On the other hand, they measure MY titer to decide when I need a booster on my rabies vaccine - I'll have to 
check in to this!
For other vaccines in horses, tetanus titers are predictive of protection, influenza vaccines are practically useless 
as they don't usually provide lasting titers (but if there WAS a titer, it would be predictive of protection), herpes 
(rhino) titers are not predictive of protection.
Cheers,
Trisha

Trisha Dowling, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVIM & ACVCP
Associate Professor, Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology
Western College of Veterinary Medicine
Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4
306-966-7359/FAX 306-966-7376