Vaccines and Titer Tests

Today I was reading up on pet vaccination and came across an entry on the subject at Shirley’s Wellness Café. Shirley is an enthusiastic proponent of alternative, especially homeopathic, treatments for ailments. She’s also highly skeptical of many vaccinations and of vaccination schedules. She cites a good number of researchers and veterinarians, and I am highly sympathetic to her views and her arguments. But, I also know that not everyone is convinced, and when name-calling (e.g., references to “pseudoscience”) is used on both sides of the fence on an issue like this one, it’s important to reach a little farther. To that end, I was really impressed when I found “Is the new quick canine vaccine titer test right for your dog?” by Christie Keith. This short article laid out the arguments nicely, focusing especially on the use of Canine VacciCheck in vet’s offices. My favorite section of the article was:

Your veterinarian will soon have a new in-office test to help you make canine vaccination decisions. How useful that test will prove depends not so much on the test results, but on the questions veterinarians and pet owners expect it to answer.

The test, dubbed the Canine VacciCheck by its manufacturer, checks titer levels for three canine viruses: Canine Infectious Hepatitis (CAV-2), Canine Parvovirus (CPV) and Canine Distemper (CDV).

It’s not available yet, but its early marketing focuses on three uses:

•Determining the vaccination status of dogs with unknown vaccination history

•Discovering whether or not a puppy has formed immunity after a vaccine is administered

•Finding out if your dog’s immunity to any of those three viruses has “worn off,” and that he’s thus in need of what we call a “booster shot”

But that wasn’t all I found. I wanted something bigger, heavier hitting, and I found it. Synbiotic’s roundtable on the topic fit the bill. The proceedings, presented in a .pdf file called “Vaccines, Titer Testing, and Vaccination: A New Look at Traditional Practices,“ is a dense discussion of the issues currently being debated within the veterinary community regarding vaccination. The bottom-line summary of the article is: “While difficult to prove, risks associated with over-vaccination are an increasing concern among veterinarians. These experts say antibody titer testing may prove to be a valuable tool in determining your patients’ vaccination needs.” Are they experts? The authors of the article are serious vets and researchers themselves, and their advice is well-reasoned and balanced. Of particular value is that they admit the difficulty of turning around the convictions of the industry, honed since the 1960s. Of titer testing and vaccination, they write:

1. Many practitioners are following decades-old guidelines and vaccinating pets annually, but duration of immunity—especially for the most essential vaccines—often lasts much longer than one year (pages 1-4).

2. Risks associated with overvaccination include fibrosarcomas in cats and immunologic disease in all patients, but practitioners face many challenges in changing their recommendations (pages 4-7):

  • They must be confident that their patients are protected from disease.
  • They must convince clients that the changes will not jeopardize pets’ health.
  • They must persuade clients to keep coming in for annual examinations.

3. In-office testing of antibody titers, if accompanied by clear guidelines for interpretation, will potentially assist veterinarians in making sound medical decisions that are in their patients’ best interest (pages 7-12).

The risks associated with overvaccination include:

  • fibrosarcomas
  • immune-mediated hemolytic anemia
  • thrombocytopenia
  • polyarthritis
  • atopy
  • chronic allergies
  • asthma and other respiratory diseases.

However, the link between most of these problems and overvaccination is very difficult to prove.

These are a few of the many good, careful points they offer, but I particularly appreciated their comments on the relationship between the pet-owner and the vet.

An important concern is that if practitioners don’t vaccinate annually, they may not see their patients as often—clients might not bring their pets in for annual examinations.

By the time an animal develops disease and is brought to the clinic, it may be beyond help. Practitioners are starting to educate their clients about the necessity of annual examinations, and they must continue this approach if they are going to vaccinate less frequently.

Administering drugs unnecessarily is not good medical practice, and a vaccine is a drug—with a wider spectrum of activity than a pharmaceutical agent.

These comments are really the best place to end the commentary. Talk to your veterinarian about vaccination, titer testing, and the risks and benefits for your pet. And listen, as well. The relationship you have with your vet is essential to the health of your pet.

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