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[Gina Heitz <brier@oregonsbest.com>]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1377004

April 22, 2002, 12:32AM
Pets don't need shots every year
Experts say annual vaccines waste money, can be
risky
By LEIGH HOPPER
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Medical Writer 
Debra Grierson leaves the veterinarian's office clutching Maddie and
Beignet, her Yorkshire terriers, and a credit card receipt for nearly
$400. 
That's the cost for the tiny dogs' annual exams, including heartworm
checks, dental checks and a barrage of shots. 
"They're just like our children," said the Houston homemaker.
"We would do anything, whatever they needed." 
What many pet owners don't know, researchers say, is that most yearly
vaccines for dogs and cats are a waste of money -- and potentially
deadly. Shots for the most important pet diseases last three to seven
years, or longer, and annual shots put pets at greater risk of
vaccine-related problems. 
The Texas Department of Health is holding public hearings to consider
changing the yearly rabies shot requirement to once every three years.
Thirty-three other states already have adopted a triennial rabies
schedule. Texas A&M University's and most other veterinary schools
now teach that most shots should be given every three years. 
"Veterinarians are charging customers $36 million a year for
vaccinations that are not necessary," said Bob Rogers, a vet in
Spring who adopted a reduced vaccine schedule. "Not only are these
vaccines unnecessary, they're causing harm to pets." 
Just as humans don't need a measles shot every year, neither do dogs or
cats need annual injections for illnesses such as parvo, distemper or
kennel cough. Even rabies shots are effective for at least three years.
The news has been slow to reach consumers, partly because few
veterinarians outside academic settings are embracing the concept.
Vaccine makers haven't done the studies needed to change vaccine labels.
Vets, who charge $30 to $60 for yearly shots, are loath to defy vaccine
label instructions and lose an important source of revenue. In addition,
they worry their patients won't fare as well without yearly exams. 
"I know some vets feel threatened because they think, `People won't
come back to my office if I don't have the vaccine as a carrot,' "
said Alice Wolf, a professor of small-animal medicine at Texas A&M
and an advocate of reduced vaccinations. "A yearly exam is very
important." 
The movement to extend vaccine intervals is gaining ground because of
growing evidence that vaccines themselves can trigger a fatal cancer in
cats and a deadly blood disorder in dogs. 
Rogers conducts public seminars on the subject with evangelical zeal but
thus far has been unsuccessful in persuading the Texas Veterinary Medical
Association to adopt a formal policy. 
"I'm asking the Texas attorney general's office if this is theft by
deception," said Rogers, whose Critter Fixer practice won an ethics
award from the Better Business Bureau in 2000. "They just keep
coming out with more vaccines that are unnecessary and don't work.
Professors give seminars, and nobody comes and nobody changes."
When rabies shots became common for pets in the 1950s, no one questioned
the value of annual vaccination. Distemper, which kills 50 percent of
victims, could be warded off with a shot. Parvovirus, which kills swiftly
and gruesomely by causing a toxic proliferation of bacteria in the
digestive system, was vanquished with a vaccine. Over the years, more and
more shots were added to the schedule, preventing costly and potentially
deadly disease in furry family members. 
Then animal doctors began noticing something ominous: rare instances of
cancer in normal, healthy cats and an unusual immune reaction in dogs.
The shots apparently caused feline fibrosarcoma, a grotesque tumor at the
site of the shot, which is fatal if not discovered early and cut out
completely. Dogs developed a vaccine-related disease in which the dog's
body rejects its own blood. 
"That really caused people to ask the question, `If we can cause
that kind of harm with a vaccine ... are we vaccinating too much?' "
said Ronald Schultz, a veterinary immunologist at the University of
Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. "As you get more and more
(vaccines), the possibility that a vaccine is going to cause an adverse
event increases quite a bit." 
Less frequent vaccines could reduce that risk, Schultz reasoned. Having
observed that humans got lifetime immunity from most of their childhood
vaccines, Schultz applied the same logic to dogs. He vaccinated them for
rabies, parvo, kennel cough and distemper and then exposed them to the
disease-causing organisms after three, five and seven years. The animals
remained healthy, validating his hunch. 
He continued his experiment by measuring antibody levels in the dogs'
blood nine and 15 years after vaccination. He found the levels sufficient
to prevent disease. 
Fredric Scott, professor emeritus at Cornell University College of
Veterinary Medicine, obtained similar results comparing 15 vaccinated
cats with 17 nonvaccinated cats. He found the cats' immunity lasted 7.5
years after vaccination. In 1998, the American Association of Feline
Practitioners published guidelines based on Scott's work, recommending
vaccines every three years. 
"The feeling of the AAFP is, cats that receive the vaccines every
three years are as protected from those infections as they would be if
they were vaccinated every year," said James Richards, director of
the Feline Health Center at Cornell. "I'm one of many people who
believe the evidence is really compelling." 
Texas A&M's Wolf said the three-year recommendation "is probably
just as arbitrary as anything else," and nothing more than a
"happy medium" between vaccine makers' recommendations and the
findings by Schultz and Scott aimed at reducing vaccine-related problems.
But many vets are uncomfortable making a drastic change in practice
without data from large-scale studies to back them up. There is no animal
equivalent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which
monitors outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease in people, thus keeping
tabs on a vaccine's effectiveness. 
Federal authorities require vaccine makers to show only that a vaccine is
effective for a reasonable amount of time, usually one year. Richards
notes that studies to get a feline vaccine licensed in the first place
are typically quite small, involving 25 to 30 cats at most. 
There is no federal requirement to show a vaccine's maximum duration of
effectiveness. Arne Zislin, a veterinarian with Fort Dodge Animal Health,
the largest animal vaccine maker in the world, said such studies would be
expensive and possibly inhumane, requiring hundreds of animals, some of
them kept in isolation for up to five years. 
"I don't think anyone with consideration for animals would really
want to go through that process," said Zislin, another vet who
believes current data are insufficient to support an extended schedule.
Diane Wilkie, veterinarian at Rice Village Animal Hospital, said she
tells pet owners that vaccines appear to last longer than a year, but her
office hasn't officially changed its protocol yet. She said 20 percent to
30 percent of her cat patients are on the extended schedule. 
"It's kind of a hard situation. The manufacturers still recommend a
year, but they're the manufacturers," Wilkie said. "It's hard
to change a whole professional mentality -- although I do think it will
change." 
In Houston, yearly pet examinations typically cost $50 to $135, with
shots making up one-third to half of the expense. A dental check,
heartworm test, fecal check and overall physical are usually included in
the price. Without the shots, vets could expect to lose a chunk of that
fee. 
But an increasing number of vets are emphasizing other services, such as
surgery. Wolf said savings on vaccines might prompt pet owners to get
their pets' teeth cleaned instead. An in-house test to check antibody
levels is in development. 
"I definitely think there's a profit issue in there; don't get me
wrong," Wilkie said. "(But) people are willing to spend money
on their pets for diseases. Although vaccines are part of the profit,
they aren't that big a part. We just did a $700 knee surgery." 

Vaccination findings 
Veterinary research challenges the notion that pets need to be
vaccinated every 12 months. Some of the findings: 
Dog vaccines/Minimum duration of immunity 
· Canine rabies3 years 
· Canine parainfluenza3 years 
· Canine distemper (Onderstepoort strain)5 years 
· Canine distemper (Rockborn strain)7 years 
· Canine adenovirus (kennel cough)7 years 
· Canine parvovirus7 years 
Cat vaccines/Minimum duration of immunity 
· Cat rabies3 years 
· Feline panleukopenia virus6 years 
· Feline herpesvirus5 or 6 years 
· Feline calicivirus3 years 
Recommendations for dogs 
· Parvovirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza, distemper: Following initial
puppy shots, provide booster one year later, and every three years
thereafter. 
· Rabies: At 16 weeks of age, thereafter as required by law. 
· Bordatella: Use prior to boarding; may be repeated up to six times a
year. 
· Coronavirus: Not recommended in private homes. Prior to boarding, may
be given to dogs 8 weeks or older, and repeated every six months. 
· Lyme: Not recommended. 
· Giardia: Not recommended. 
Recommendations for cats 
· Panleukopenia, herpesvirus (rhinotracheitis), calicivirus: Following
initial kitten shots, provide booster one year later and every three
years thereafter. 
· Rabies: At 8 weeks of age, thereafter as required by law. 
· Feline leukemia: Use only in high-risk cats. Best protection is two
vaccines prior to 12 weeks of age, with boosters repeated annually. 
· Bordatella: Use prior to boarding. 
· Feline infectious peritonitis: Not recommended. 
· Chlamydia: Not recommended. 
· Ringworm: May be used during an outbreak in a home. 
Sources: Ronald Schultz, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary
Medicine; Fredric Scott, Cornell University College of Veterinary
Medicine; Colorado State University; University of California-Davis
Center for Companion Animal Health.