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Efficacy
(or: Does it Work?)
Every
procedure we do to ourselves or those in our care should be a useful one
or there is no reason to do it. This may seem obvious, but bears
mentioning, especially in the world of modern medicine. While
vaccinations may confer immunity in animals, how effective or useful is it
to repeat this procedure every year, as is the standard recommendation in
this country today?
Immunology
has recognized for a great many years that viruses in vaccinations confer
a long-lived immunity. This is why your physician is not sending you
postcards every year to repeat your small pox or polio vaccinations
annually. They understand your immune system was adequately
stimulated in childhood, and a cellular memory exists in you that will
"wake up" if any future challenges from these viruses occur.
Is there some profound difference in animals that makes us think they need
to repeat their vaccinations yearly? Let me quote from the experts. The
following was printed in Current Veterinary Therapy, volume XI, published
several years ago (this is a very well respected, peer-reviewed book
that is updated every four years). The authors are veterinary
immunologists Ronald Schultz (University of Wisconsin) and Tom Phillips (Scrips
Research Institute).
"A
practice that was started many years ago and that lacks scientific
validity or verification is annual revaccination. Almost without
exception there is no immunologic requirement for annual revaccination.
Immunity to viruses persists for years or for the life of the animal......
Furthermore, revaccination with most viral vaccines fails to stimulate an
anamnestic (secondary) response.... The practice of annual
vaccination in our opinion should be considered of questionable
efficacy..."
In plain
English, that means you are wasting a lot of money (and, as we'll see
later, risking your animals' health) without much likelihood that your
animal is actually becoming "boosted" each year. In other
words, the immunity that was established in early life persists, and it is
that immunity that actually interferes with subsequent vaccinations. It's
much like the case of vaccinating very young puppies. If you vaccinate a
puppy (or kitten) at a too young age, the maternal antibodies from the
mother's immune system are still present, and the vaccine will be thwarted
in its attempt to provoke an immune response.
I had the pleasure to meet
Dr. Schultz at a veterinary conference a few years ago. He has done
research for many of the companies that market vaccines. It was very
interesting to hear his perspective of 25 years in this field. He
clearly had not come to this understanding lightly. One most
interesting fact was the way that rabies vaccine comes to be labeled. We
currently have a "One-year rabies" and a "Three-year
rabies" vaccine. On the labels, the one-year must be repeated
yearly and the three- year must be repeated every three years. The reason
behind this is the length of time the experimental animals were studied.
At the end of one year after their vaccination, the animals were
challenged with live rabies virus, the survivors tallied, and the vaccine
marketed. The same vaccine was studied for three years , the
data gathered, and this vaccine lot was marketed as "Three-year
rabies vaccine." Rabies vaccine is so effective in immunizing
that there is likely life-long protection. Why then do we vaccinate
annually? And why, in light of the understanding above, are we Texas
veterinarians required to use the three-year vaccine annually? Unfortunately,
we have a law in place that fails to recognize immunological facts. In
Texas, all dogs and cats are required to be vaccinated annually against
rabies.
What about the other
vaccinations? They are also viral vaccines, so there should be
"no immunological requirement" for repeating them yearly. Also
know that none of the others are required by law to be repeated annually. Some
are even useless to give at any age, others at any age over one year.
A lot of what conventional
medicine recommends is based on is fear. If there's a "bad germ"
out there that might "get us" (or our pets), we want to use
something to protect against that germ. We've all heard horror
stories about dogs dying of Parvovirus infection, so we are admonished to
get yearly (or even twice yearly!) vaccinations against this deadly
disease. Yet how many adult dogs die of Parvo each year?
Ask your veterinarian this question. Parvo is almost always a disease
of puppies under one year of age, and very occasionally old dogs who have
weakened immune systems from unhealthy living (commercial diets and
frequent vaccinations!). Why, then should we vaccinate against it
yearly throughout life? Coronavirus also causes puppy diarrhea and
vomiting, but differs from Parvo in that it is not fatal. Is it
worthwhile injecting viruses into our animals for a disease from which
they will surely survive? Dr. Schultz and others feel it is not. Yet
this and other non-fatal viruses are in common use in every "annual
(non-)booster" given.
You might ask why this
annual vaccination habit exists. It's a very good question, and one that
conventional medicine is examining more and more frequently as time goes
on. A recent watershed occurred when a renowned University of
California-Davis veterinary researcher and professor, Neils Pedersen,
commented on the practice in a very well respected conventional magazine
called AAHA Trends (AAHA is the American Animal Hospital Association).
"current
vaccine practices are medically unsound. It is time to question the
wisdom of annual booster, multivalent products (combination vaccines, the
most common being DHLPP for dogs and FVRCP for cats), and unnecessary
vaccines. Doing so will return companion animals' immunization to
its status as a medical and not an economical procedure."
What will
get us a lot closer to what we really want (healthy animals who are
resistant to all disease) is to focus on raising our individual
animals in the way that allows them to do what nature intended: to
live freely, happily, and fully alive, with an immune system that responds
directly to any challenge that confronts them. In our haste to protect our
pets, let's not forget that it's the animal's immune system that protects,
not some solution of viruses in a syringe.
In
Part II I address
another aspect of the vaccine question: safety. For now, suffice it
to say that if your dog or cat is an adult who has had vaccinations, there
is no immunologic need to continue vaccinating annually: the immunity is
present from the early vaccines and will not get any better through yearly
repetition.
About the Author
Dr. Will Falconer, DVM
8509 Zyle Rd
Austin, TX 78737
512-288-5400
Fax 512-288-5402
Small Animal, Equine, Farm Animal, Avian, Exotic
He graduated with his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the
University of Missouri in 1980 and has been in practice ever since. For
the first seven years, he practiced very conventionally, using drugs and
surgery to treat animals. Since then, he has gradually changed his
practice style and philosophy to incorporate a more holistic approach to
healthcare. He has taken certification training in veterinary
acupuncture and veterinary homeopathy, and has received Certification as
a Veterinary Homeopath from the Academy
of Veterinary Homeopathy.
Dr. Falconer is a member of the American
Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, the Academy of Veterinary
Homeopathy, and the National Center for Homeopathy. He writes articles
for national pet magazines and medical journals, gives public lectures
to animal owners, and shares homeopathic case reports with conventional
and holistic veterinarians. He enjoys a full-time classical
homeopathic practice
click here to view
Part II of article
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