Pet Vaccinations Are annual boosters really necessary? - the debate goes on
Peter Culpin BSc MA VetMB MRCVS Chief Veterinary Officer - PETS Naturally Ltd

Pet owners have, for a long time now, been brainwashed by vets into believing that their beloved pets require annual booster vaccinations to keep their immune status to diseases such as Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus up to the required level.

There are some owners who believe that even if they are as much as one day late with their pet's booster vaccination they are putting their pet at enormous risk. When vets tell pet owners they will have to commence their pet's vaccinations again if they go overdue they do nothing to dispel these myths.

So, what's the truth?
The answer is - we simply have no real hard and fast rules.

We do, however, know a few things about vaccination and immunity to these diseases that allow us to make an informed decision.

First, vaccinations have to be licensed. This license is granted to the manufacturing company in return for the company providing a mound of information about the vaccine.
Herein lies the first anomaly - namely, vaccines are often tested for one or maybe as much as two years at the most, to see how effective they are at giving protection.

Since the manufacturer can only prove the effectiveness of the vaccine for the period over which it was tested, it is only allowed a licence if the data sheet for the vaccine says it has to be repeated every year or two. They would need to test it's efficacy for much longer to say it protected for longer than this - a costly exercise, and one that would, if it proved correct, reduce sales of vaccines.

Secondly, blood tests can detect the level of antibodies in pets that have been vaccinated. Many dogs vaccinated against hepatitis have life long immunity and antibodies in most are shown to be present in the blood for many years. Distemper and parvovirus antibodies, similarly, can be present for anywhere between three and five years or may be even longer.
The simple answer, therefore, is, as with rabies vaccination for pets going abroad, to blood-test pets annually to check their immunity, vaccinating them only when their antibodies fall below accepted effective levels.

Homoepathic vets have been doing this for some time, and the procedure is now being offered routinely by PETS Naturally's veterinary clinics.

Since this technique is somewhat more expensive than annual vaccination vets argue that we might as well vaccinate anyway. However, many vets practising complementary medicine believe that this is not a sensible argument. They believe that over-vaccination actually damages our pet's health, often producing long-term immune disorders such as skin problems and bowel disease.

While so much money is to be earned both by manufacturers and vets alike out of annual booster vaccination the likelihood is that owners will continue to receive conflicting advice.
For further advice on vaccinating your pet, or any pet health issue
e-mail vets@petsnaturally.com. The company currently has practices in Huddersfield, Oldham and Newcastle under Lyme, with more planned in other areas of the country within the coming year.