adrian
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Mar 23, 2002, 2:08 AM
Post #5 of 8
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Annual booster shots? Is it needed?
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There are two major questions that beg for exact answers:
1.) Are multiple vaccines "overloading" the pets immune system?
2.) Are "annual vaccinations" really necessary annually?
Not only are dog owners beginning to ask about the safety and necessity of annual, multivalent vaccines for their pets but the entire veterinary profession is in a state of critical self-examination. From the highly technical research and development laboratories in the giant pharmaceutical corporations right on down to the solo practitioner operating a mobile clinic, the veterinary health care providers are asking if the current suggested vaccine protocols are safe and effective?
Let’s take a swim through these turbulent waters and try to make some sense of what is fact and what is conjecture. Discussing the first question of multivalent vaccines and whether or not they are "stressing" The Immune System we need to know a little about how an individual (human, dog, cat, mouse ... mammals are quite similar in their defense mechanisms against disease) responds to a pathogen. (A pathogen is any agent such as a virus or bacteria or poison that harms the individual) Every minute of every day all individuals are being silently attacked by pathogens from the air, food, water, and contents of our own intestinal tracts. The true miracle is that any of us survive at all!
Through eons of the evolutionary trial and error method, those species who best defended against pathogens were able to produce similar offspring who were also immune competent, that is, able to fend off those harmful invaders. So we can safely state that, in general, those individuals alive today have healthy Immune systems, otherwise all those nasty pathogens would have their way with us in short order! But some experts believe the overall state of health in many of the earth's creatures is declining, and that vaccinations are actually contributing to the demise of our immune systems.
- The Immune System - Everybody throws this term around with reckless abandon and often the term is totally misunderstood. Here is what you really need to know about The Immune System if you are to have any calm water to swim through in this sea of controversy surrounding vaccination protocols.
The Immune System is really a very general term for all of the body's pathogen defense mechanisms. The Immune System is not a single, discrete system, after all. There are a multitude of biochemical and anatomical factors that make up The Immune System but only three aspects that we will refer to in this article. These three active barriers to disease that play a major role in vaccination-induced immunity are the following:
1.) MUCOSAL IMMUNITY ... takes place in the thin mucous lining of the mammary, respiratory, urinary, and digestive tracts. This important barrier to disease often is the first line of defense against viruses and bacteria and the ammunition used against invaders is called "secretary IgA" antibody. This complex protein molecule binds up invaders and prevents their entrance into the body. Vaccine technology has taken advantage of this line of defense through the implementation of intranasal and oral vaccines. Much more emphasis will be placed on MUCOSAL IMMUNITY in the future since there is increasing evidence that human and animal populations are experiencing a measurable decline in IgA immune proteins. Just what is triggering the decline in IgA levels and what role vaccinations may play in this scheme is as yet unknown.
2.) CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY ... this refers to individual body cells that have learned by past experience (exposure) what foreign invaders look like and recognizes the invaders whenever they show up again! So when a cell is exposed to an invader such as Parvovirus, the cell recognizes the virus as an invader and mounts a response by manufacturing immune proteins. If the strength and numbers of the virus attack don't kill the cell, the cell is now educated as to what Parvoviruses look like and becomes better equipped to defend itself from future Parvovirus attacks.
Natural exposure as well as vaccine products which "look like" a natural pathogen but don't present a threat to the cell can induce the cell to remember what the foreign invaders look like. A healthy cell is then prepared to fend off future attacks.
There are lots of body cells whose main job is to fight off disease. Plus, every cell in the body that has a special function... let's say a liver cell that has to store glycogen, make cholesterol, convert protein into building material, plus regulate numerous other chemical reactions...still has the ability to recognize an invader and fight for its life! For the most part, specialized white blood cells play a major role in CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY.
3. HUMORAL IMMUNITY ... works from the body's fluid sources, the blood and lymph. This is where we test for a dog or cat's immune levels (called antibody titers) so that we can get an estimate of how well the body can recognize an invader. If the body has had a previous encounter with a pathogen, just like with CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY), the body makes "Opposite Invaders" to circulate in body fluids. The "Opposite Invaders" are called antibodies. These molecules attach to or otherwise disable invaders and prevent them from doing harm to the body. And just like with CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY, it is safer for the body to learn to recognize an invader from a crippled or fake invader than to risk learning from an actual natural attack.
There are many other ways a "home-body" wards off disease, but these three major Immune System divisions working together carry the brunt of responsibility for defense against pathogens. Remember that there are no simple blood tests for CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY, it can be assessed but it is difficult and expensive to measure.
And each individual is unique as to how tough this line of defense is. HUMORAL IMMUNITY, however, can be measured by checking the levels of circulating "Opposite Invaders" that we call antibodies. Our ability to say that a dog or cat is protected from a disease based solely upon checking for high antibody titers is precarious ... but, from a practical standpoint, it's all we've got! It is very important to keep in mind that we can only assume what titer levels are protective and what levels are not. Antibody titer tests are not absolutely predictive of the individual's ability to fend off disease but rather simply indicate the strength of the immune system's memory of previous exposure to a specific pathogen. So if your dog has a high titer to the Rabies virus...does that mean that if exposed to the virus the dog will absolutely not get the disease? No one can say absolutely not...we can only sat probably not.
Now that we have a better understanding of what The Immune System refers to and with the knowledge that we can test part of it, we can ask certain questions. The first one is...
Are multiple agent vaccines overloading The Immune System?" With your knowledge that every individual is continuously being challenged by invaders, it seems unlikely that "ganging up" on The Immune System is even possible. In fact there is overwhelming scientific evidence that a healthy body can respond with immune defenses to multiple challenges and can make protective levels of antibodies to a number of pathogens at the same time! Remember ... we're talking about normal and healthy dogs that may have had an adverse reaction to a vaccination were outwardly healthy, but in truth were suffering from a pre-existing, undetected disorder? There have been statements that there is "evidence that the more you stimulate The Immune System the better it works." This statement may very well be true, unless there is an overwhelming number and virulence of pathogens.
On the other hand there are very knowledgeable individuals who would strongly disagree. Holistic practitioners state that there are "all kinds of problems with vaccinations and they are probably the worst thing that we do for our animals". Their belief is that by injecting vaccine into an animal we are effectively by-passing the body's normal lines of defenses and presenting to the animal foreign material in an unnatural manner. Repetitive vaccinations, they contend, rather than providing extra assurance that an animal will mount high levels of antibodies, actually has an adverse effect on the animal's overall ability to achieve a healthy balance within its disease fighting talents. This does make sense to me.
If you choose to believe that multivalent vaccines are harmful to your pet and that only a single antigen (vaccine) should be given at a time, you may encounter difficulty since some vaccines are not available individually. Keep in mind, though, that there are decades of evidence gathered from millions of individuals including humans, dogs, cats, cattle, horses, chickens etc. that multivalent vaccines are an effective and economical method of protecting individuals from disease.
Balance this, though, with the belief of some holistic practitioners that harmful effects of vaccinating may not be recognizable for several generations and that an individual may not show any signs of vaccine derived diseases in its lifetime. But future generations (offspring of the vaccinated animal) would not have optimum immune fitness because of the previously given vaccines?
The question of whether or not "annual vaccinations" really should be given yearly is a good one. How often is Too Often? The answer is somewhat elusive, too, because the only way we would know if an individual should be vaccinated right now would be to know that the individual is at high risk of getting the disease. In other words, if there was a nice test that would say "Yes, vaccinate immediately! This blood sample indicates that the immune system's mucosal, cellular and humoral immunity is low and needs reeducating!," then the choice to vaccinate would be simpler. (That is if you believed in vaccinating to begin with!) Some types of in-office blood tests are available at this time. However it may be a while before a wide range of simple and inexpensive tests for immunity-status-indicators for a multitude of pet diseases are available. A complicating factor in duration of immunity after a vaccine is given is the unique character of each individual's Immune System.
Pet owners should keep in mind that when a laboratory conducts duration of immunity studies the dogs and cats are healthy and kept in clean, parasite free surroundings and are very well provided for. This is done not only for humane reasons but also to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of a vaccination over a period of time without all the other common variables the average dog might face. In reality it happens that dogs are vaccinated who have just been released from weeks of confinement in a kennel or shelter, or are parasitized, poorly fed or otherwise stressed. Will a vaccine given to a stressed animal be as effective over a long period of time as the same vaccine given to a normal, healthy dog? The correct answer is: Maybe and maybe not. Each individual is so unique that no prediction can ever hope to be 100 percent accurate for any dog when we are talking about what a vaccine will do. And that's a fact that everyone agrees upon!!!
If, for example, a five year study indicates that one year after receiving a vaccine, 90% of dogs are still protected against the specific disease vaccinated for, and at three years 70% are still protected and at five years 50% are still protected ... what level of risk of disease will the pet owner be willing to live with? Every dog owner will have a different comfort zone and some owners may very well choose to vaccinate yearly, not knowing if their dog is in that group of 10% of vaccinates who don't hold an adequate level of humoral immunity after one year. Some pet owners may have a comfort zone at the three year-70% protection probability level and some will vaccinate every five years.
Wouldn’t it be nice if veterinarians had a simple test that could be run quickly and accurately in the office at the time of the vaccination appointment? This blood test would assess serum antibody titers of all the common diseases vaccinated for and give the owner a readout of levels of protection against the diseases. Then the veterinarian could specifically customize a vaccination schedule for that patient based upon chances of exposure to the disease, chances of a reaction to the vaccination, the dog's health status and age, and the owner's comfort zone. No doubt someday this will happen.
And as far as making a standard recommendation for vaccinations, I believe that there are so many variables in each individual dog and cat that a number of considerations should be explored regarding how many vaccines are administered and how often. If a veterinarian had ten dogs in front of him to vaccinate, there would be ten different immune systems that would accept the vaccine each in a unique way. Pet owners should keep in mind that no vaccine for humans or pets is 100% protective, 100% safe, in 100% of the recipients of the vaccine.
I would suggest that you do some searching on your own through recent dog magazines, the library, your veterinarians borrowed text books, or the Internet. After a few hours of research you will most certainly gain an insight into the pros and cons of vaccinating. You will begin to approach a personal vaccine comfort zone. But I'll bet you still won't have a firm conviction as to what exactly constitutes too many or too often!
Here's an important word of caution about using the Internet: The problem with the Internet is that you will have a difficult time sorting out fact from fiction. There is a tremendous amount of data available to you through your computer. However there's a balancing act going on here. You will find everything from hard statistical facts to absolute garbage spilled from quasi-experts who take a single case history with questionable data and extrapolate wild and fanciful horror stories about the dangers of vaccinating your pet. I even read somewhere on the Internet where a veterinarian stated that there was "no scientific evidence that vaccinations even work and that they in fact cause far more disease and misery than benefit"! The real danger lies in the possibility that someone will actually believe this sort of nonsense.
In conclusion, I believe in staying on the proven road of the yearly boosters until someone with credibility can come up to me and prove with research and conclusive evidence that annual boosters are harmful. Yes, it maybe be true that in previous generations that dogs were hardly even given any vaccinations and they also survived but has anyone given any thought to the prevailing conditions then? Furthur there is no record that will statistically point out the actual life span of the Dogs from the last 10 decades to prove such a statement.
"There is no faith which has never yet been broken except that of a truly faithful dog." - Konrad Lorenz
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