Cityboy,
You are absolutely correct, hunting hounds are at much greater risk of coming into contact with rabid animals - I am certainly
not advocating against vaccinating for rabies. Most dog owners, however, are not fully informed about vaccines because few mainstream veterinarians give them full disclosure about the scientifically proven long-term durations of immunity for the vaccines or the adverse reactions associated with them. I am against
overvaccinating dogs -- redundantly vaccinating your dog does not boost immunity, it needlessly exposes the animal to the risk of adverse side affects and the dog owner wastes money by paying for something their dog is not deriving any benefit from.
It is not true that dogs rarely have adverse reactions to the rabies vaccine. The rabies vaccine is the most potent of all the veterinary vaccines and it causes the most and the worst adverse side affects, according to the world's leading veterinary vaccine research scientists. You may think there are few adverse reactions because veterinarians are not required to report them, and the vast majority do not according to FDA estimates, which estimate that less than 1 in 10 vaccinal adverse reactions get reported. If ischemic dermatopathy or cancer, which can take months to develop, are one of those adverse reactions to rabies shots, it is even more unlikely that it will be reported. It's impossible to know just how often dogs adversely react to vaccines because veterinarians are not required by law to do so, and according to the
World Small Animal Veterinary Association's 2007 Vaccine Guidleines, "The VGG recognises that there is gross under-reporting of vaccine-associated adverse events which impedes knowledge of the ongoing safety of these products. The recently released
World Small Animal Veterinary Association 2007 Vaccine Guidelines are available online at
http://www.wsava.org/SAC.htm Scroll down to Vaccine Guidelines 2007 (PDF)
Were you aware that in 1992, a French research team led by Michel Aubert published rabies challenge studies that demonstrated that dogs were immune to a rabies challenge 5 years after vaccination? A "challenge" study is one that vaccinates dogs, isolates them for a number of years so they do not acquire natural immunity to a disease, and then they are injected with high doses of virulent virus to "challenge" their immunity. Challenge studies are considered the gold standard in vaccine research.
Dr. Ronald Schultz of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine has published serological studies demonstrating that dogs have antibody titers counts at levels KNOWN to confer immunity to rabies 7 years after vaccination. So, there is published scientific research which strongly indicates that U.S. laws are requiring us to overvaccinate our dogs with the most potent veterinary vaccine manufactured.
The USDA does not require veterinary vaccine manufacturers to conduct long-term duration of immunity studies to prove how
long their products confer immunity. They are allowed to relabel their 3 year rabies vaccine as a 1 year product -- if you click on this link
http://www.calmanimalcare.com/vaccine.htm , you will be taken to the Calm Animal Care website, which has posted Colorado State University's Small Animal Vaccination Protocol for its veterinary teaching hospital. In their protocol, it states:
"Even with rabies vaccines, the label may be misleading in that a three year duration of immunity product may also be labeled and sold as a one year duration of immunity product."
The American Veterinary Medical Association states in their
2001 Principles of Vaccination that:
"The one-year revaccination frequency recommendation found on many vaccine labels is based on historical precedent and United Sates Department of Agriculture regulation, not on scientific data. Even in those cases where scientific data was submitted to qualify the label claim, the data generated does not resolve the question about average or maximum duration of immunity."
There can be significant consequences to
overvaccinating your dog with any vaccine. Under a separate post located at
http://www.coondawgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=60753, I posted an abstract from the Journal of Veterinary Medicine about a 2003 study documenting fibrosarcomas at the presumed sites of rabies vaccination sites. Many veterinarians will deny this, why? Because they aren't keeping up with current scientific research.
Other adverse reactions such autoimmune diseases affecting the thyroid, joints, blood, eyes, skin, kidney, liver, bowel and central nervous system; anaphylactic shock; aggression; seizures; epilepsy; and fibrosarcomas at injection sites are linked to rabies vaccinations. I'm happy to send you that full study and the French challenge study if you contact me at
ledgespring@lincoln.midcoast.com.
Most states require that dogs be vaccinated against rabies every 3 years, but there are some states like Kanasas, Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, and municipalities in Florida, Tennessee and elsewhere that require annual rabies vaccinations. And guess what, dogs in those areas are often being given the 3 years rabies vaccine which has been relabeled for 1 year!!! Dog owners in states or municipalities are seldom aware that the rabies vaccine they are giving their dog every year is likely a relabeled 3 year vaccine. If you click on this link
http://www.calmanimalcare.com/vaccine.htm , you will be taken to the Calm Animal Care website, which has posted Colorado State University's Small Animal Vaccination Protocol for its veterinary teaching hospital. In their protocol, it states:
"Even with rabies vaccines, the label may be misleading in that a three year duration of immunity product may also be labeled and sold as a one year duration of immunity product."
In order to keep your dogs healthy, you need to be informed about the vaccines you're giving them and make sure you are not overvaccinating them. I know how much your hunting dogs mean to you and just how much time you put into training them. While Meadow was not a hunting lab, my husband was an avid bird hunter at one time and trained our bird dogs himself.
Excellent information on veterinary vaccine is available at the sites below:
Duration of Immunity to Canine Vaccines: What We Know and Don't Know, Dr. Ronald Schultz
http://www.cedarbayvet.com/duration_of_immunity.htm
World Small Animal Veterinary Association 2007 Vaccine Guidelines http://www.wsava.org/SAC.htm Scroll down to Vaccine Guidelines 2007 (PDF)
The
2003 American Animal Hospital Association's Canine Vaccine Guidelines are accessible online at
http://www.leerburg.com/special_report.htm .
The
2006 American Animal Hospital Association's Canine Vaccine Guidelines are downloadable in PDF format at
http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocumen...s06Revised.pdf .
Veterinarian, Dr. Robert Rogers,has an excellent presentation on veterinary vaccines at
http://www.newvaccinationprotocols.com/