Victory for the underdogs

KRIS Christine, a Maine woman who has battled for years to change the annual rabies revaccination requirement from annually to every three years, has at last tasted victory in the form of official sanction for a new trial for the rabies vaccine.

Many of the more progressive veterinarians have already begun to recommend three-yearly inoculation, but there is still a large number who cling to the old concepts of giving annual shots for almost everything including parvovirus, distemper, and even coronavirus, which is not recommended at all. To check that your veterinarian is up to date with requirements consult your country’s veterinary association recommendations.

Rabies vaccination has always been at the top of the list for over-reaction, mainly because it is one very nasty illness that can easily be passed on to humans or other animals. But while yearly boosters are still recommended for canines in most areas and countries, members of the veterinary profession, arguably the most vulnerable and most likely to be in contact with the disease, are advised that they need inoculation only once in a lifetime. Do doctors then know something that vets don’t know?

Some vets already are convinced that the vaccine will last at least five or up to seven years, but without any clinical trials to prove length of immunity they can not claim to be right (or wrong). Most vaccines are tested by the companies that produce them, but if you were producing a product that was compulsorily used yearly would you be enthusiastic about spending huge amounts of money to hold trials that may reduce your sales to a fifth or a seventh of current sale volumes? Logic of that calibre is in the “fail” basket of every business guide.

Two like-thinking veterinarians have joined Ms Christine’s campaign to make fewer vaccinations the accepted standard. They are Jean Dodds of Hemopet in Garden Grove, California and Ronald Schultz at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison (he helped to produce the American Animal Hospital Association's guidelines).

Dodds has lectured for many years on reactions associated with the rabies vaccine which include autoimmune diseases of the thyroid, joints, blood, eyes, skin, kidney, liver, bowel and central nervous system; anaphylactic shock; aggression; seizures; epilepsy; and fibrosarcomas at the injection sites (especially in cats).

Schultz has undertaken serological studies at a personal level to document rabies antibody titer counts, and has found levels high enough to confer immunity seven years after vaccination. But the tests needed to be formal ones to extend the state-law requirements for booster dose frequency.

Now, thanks to the contributions of dog clubs, veterinarians and concerned owners, money contributed to the cause has reached the goal needed to start the official tests, and these will now begin under the watchful eye of Mr Schultz
at the University of Wisconsin, which will donate all the overhead costs. The public has been actively behind the testing right from the start, most dog owners it seems have been worried for some time about the adverse effects of over-vaccination.

The Rabies Challenge Fund, meanwhile, needs more donations - looming on the horizon each year is a $150,000 annual budget that must still be met. Individuals can and do make a difference and every donation, however small, is appreciated. Donations can be sent to: Rabies Challenge Fund, c/o Hemopet, 11330 Markon Drive, Garden Grove, CA 92841. For more information on the Rabies Challenge Fund, visit RabiesChallengeFund.org.