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By Dave Nicol, Updated July 2007.

Vaccinations have long been a topic of controversy, but unquestionably pet vaccination programs have vastly reduced the incidence of once common fatal diseases like distemper, leptospirosis, parvovirus and feline panleucopaenia virus. Yet despite of this, less than half of pet owners bother to have their pets' vaccinated on a regular basis. This may be partly due fear about side effects or cost grounds.

Dave Nicol reviews pet vaccination to help you make an informed choice for your pet.

The Benefits of Vaccination

Vaccination is about stimulating a pet's immune system to protect it against infectious organisms. Typically we vaccinate against infections that cause death in many cases (parvovirus) or are highly infectious, causing widespread disease when outbreaks occur (cat flu).

A vaccine consists of either a severely weakened version of a virus or bacteria, or bits of a virus broken up into tiny fragments. These units, called antigens, are injected into the body and provoke a protective response from the immune system. Subsequent boosters help ensure that the protection is maintained.

Vaccination, if performed frequently enough, provides life long protection. In this manner all kinds of killer diseases have been consigned to the history books, most notably, in humans, small pox and polio.

The immediate and obvious reasons for vaccinating your pet are:

• Lifespan increases - your pet won't die young from parvo, leukaemia or myxomatosis
• Veterinary costs decrease - because trying to treat these diseases once present can run into hundreds if not thousands of pounds.

So why is it that less than half of our pets are vaccinated?

The Hazards of Vaccination

Vaccinations can cause adverse reactions, after all an "alien" substance is being injected into your pet's body. But the degree of problem and likelihood of it occurring is often blown out of all proportion by the scare mongering tactics of newspaper reports and TV documentaries.

The recognised potential problems are:

• Allergic chest reactions
• Occasional sickness and diarrhoea
• Blood clotting disorders
• Anaemias
• Injection site reactions.

No one would deny that some of these problems are very serious indeed and can result in tragedy if it is your pet affected, but for the pet population as a whole the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks. Simply put your pet is far more likely to contract a fatal disease because it is not vaccinated, than have an adverse reaction if it is.

Vested Interests Before Pets Interests?

Evidence is now available that suggests protection may be longer lived than annually. Accordingly there have been accusations from some quarters that vets and vaccine companies are place their profits before the well being of pets. The vested interests that need to be declared are:

• Some veterinary practices unfortunately are heavily dependant on income from vaccinations
• It would be very costly to vaccine companies if the policy of annual vaccination were changed to once every five years for example.

Thankfully attitudes do appear to be changing and certainly it is now widely acknowledged that less frequent vaccinations against some of the diseases is possible.

Ironically, it was Intervet (the vaccine company that supply Parkvets) that undertook research conclusively demonstrating the need for less frequent vaccination with distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus. In addition the same company will launch a new kennel cough vaccine this April for dogs. The new vaccine will provide protection for a full year (doubling the previous vaccination interval of six months).

At Parkvets our policies on vaccination have changed in keeping with the established and reliable evidence.

Our Recommendations

As a pet owner at Parkvets you should always be in full possession of the facts in order to make the best decisions for your pet. To this end we suggest two courses of action.

1. The Parkvets Policy

Firstly the risks from vaccination are extremely low so our policy regarding vaccination (based on the current available research and drug safety legislation) is that annual vaccination should be performed in all cases except where there is no specific reason not to do so. This means:

• Puppies are vaccinated from 8 weeks
• Kittens are vaccinated from 9 weeks
• Rabbits are vaccinated from 6 weeks

• Thereafter the following boosters should be performed:
• Dogs - Annually: Parainfluenza, leptospirosis, Kennel Cough (from April 2004)
• Dogs - Every three years: Distemper, parvo, hepatitis
• Cats - Annually: Feline leukamia, cat flu
• Rabbits - Annually: Viral Haemorrhagic Disease if a known risk exists
• Rabbits - Annually: Myxomatosis - but biannually if in a high risk area.

If research is published to conclusively prove that vaccinations should be administered less frequently, then you can be sure that we'll change our policy accordingly.

2. What's the Alternative?

While we strongly advise annual health checks with appropriate vaccination we do respect the fact that some owners can make informed choices over the best way to protect their pet, provided they understand the risk / benefit consequences of their choices.

Some owners may be concerned because a pet has experienced a significant adverse reaction on a previous occasion. In this instance we would suggest that, provided the pet has had its primary vaccination course, an annual health check should be done to monitor the pet but without vaccination. However if there is a significant outbreak of one of the diseases in the area then revaccination against the problem may be appropriate.

Some owners prefer to have their pet's blood tested to assess antibody levels against the serious diseases. This does mean blood sampling the pet on an annual basis and is significantly more expensive than having just a vaccination done. There are also some concerns that a high antibody level may not truly reflect the ability of the pet to protect itself against exposure to a virulent infectious organism.

Finally we occasionally hear of dogs being "vaccinated" with homeopathic nosodes. On this topic we wish to be extremely clear. There is no evidence that homeopathic vaccines offer any protection against disease.

Insurance and Pet Passports

Owners need to also be aware that not having their pets vaccinated may affect their pet insurance cover if subsequently the pet is affected by one of these diseases.

The "Pet Passport Scheme" requires that dogs (if using the Intervet Nobivac Rabies) be vaccinated at least every third year to qualify. Many European countries require animals to be vaccinated against rabies on an annual basis irrespective of the vaccine manufacturers' recommendations.

Making Your Choice

In short, vaccinations have been one of the greatest advances in veterinary medicine, they protect against a variety of diseases for which little effective treatments exist. Vaccinations can, on rare occasions, cause side effects (some of them very serious) but these risks are tiny compared to the risks of contracting serious infection with the real thing.

If concerned please don't simply avoid the issue, rather seek to discuss the matter with your vet, options are available.

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