Kathy Gallagher writes; “New Approaches to Canine Vaccination
I attended the 2007 Breeders Symposium on Sunday 18th November at the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire. The day was opened by Chairman Dr Jeff Sampson the Kennel Club’s Canine Genetics Coordinator. It was a very well run and attended symposium with nearly 150 people turning up to hear the speakers. One of the speakers on the day was Professor Michael J Day, his subject being “New Approaches to Canine Vaccination” He was speaking of the new guidelines that he and others as part of the VVG (Vaccination Guidelines Group) published in September 2007 to the veterinary profession.
The VVG believe that there are certain vaccines that are essential for all dogs/cats to have, the “Core” vaccines. The core vaccines are necessary because they protect our dogs/cats from life threatening diseases. The essential core vaccines that all dogs should have are to protect them are CDV (canine distemper virus) CAV (canine adenovirus) CPV (canine parvovirus) and for dogs that travel abroad obviously the Rabies vaccination. Now for the good of the news, the VVG believes that core vaccines should not be given any more than every 3 years following the booster given at 12 months. With puppies its back to the old days when we used to vaccine at 8-12-16 weeks, recent data has suggested that bitch’s antibodies may last longer in puppies than thought and may interfere with the effect of the vaccines available at this time.
Web site www.wsava.org/SAC.htm for more information