Jean Dodds talks about vaccines for Dogs Naturally magazine

W. Jean Dodds DVM, long time vaccinology expert:

“I don’t really believe my training in veterinary college was adequate with regard to animal vaccination.  To be fair to current knowledge, I graduated from veterinary college in Canada in 1964. At that time we understood much less about the molecular aspects of immunology, and the long term medical effects of vaccinations, both beneficial and potentially harmful. We also had fewer infectious diseases to treat and prevent, and hence fewer vaccines for them.

“I was always a clinical research scientist, but colleagues and pet owners would tell me about malaise and illness that appeared shortly after pet animals were vaccinated. This was in addition to the rare case of anaphylaxis induced by vaccination.   They spoke about irritability, low-grade or even high fever, anorexia, stiffness, and occasional seizure-like episodes. These usually occurred from 2-10 days post-vaccination, sometimes longer (up to 45 days).

“The clinical signs associated with vaccine reactions typically include fever, stiffness, sore joints and abdominal tenderness, susceptibility to infections, neurological disorders and encephalitis, collapse with autoagglutinated red blood cells and icterus (autoimmune hemolytic anemia) (AIHA), or generalized petechiae and ecchymotic hemorrhages (immune-mediated thrombocytopenia) (ITP). ^{1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13}

“Hepatic enzymes may be markedly elevated, and liver or kidney failure may occur by itself or accompany bone marrow suppression.  Furthermore, MLV vaccination has been associated with the development of transient seizures in puppies and adult dogs of breeds or cross-breeds susceptible to immune-mediated diseases especially those involving hematologic or endocrine tissues (e.g. AIHA, ITP, autoimmune thyroiditis). ^{1, 7, 10} Post-vaccinal polyneuropathy is a recognized entity associated occasionally with the use of distemper, parvovirus, rabies and presumably other vaccines. ^{2, 3, 7}  This can result in various clinical  signs including muscular atrophy, inhibition or interruption of neuronal control of tissue and organ function, muscular excitation, incoordination and weakness, as well as seizures. ⁷

“Certain breeds or families of dogs appear to be more susceptible to adverse vaccine reactions, particularly post-vaccinal seizures, high fevers, and painful episodes of hypertrophic osteodystrophy (HOD). ^{7, 9} Vaccination of pet and research dogs with polyvalent vaccines containing rabies virus or rabies vaccine alone was recently shown to induce production of antithyroglobulin autoantibodies, a provocative and important finding with implications for the subsequent development of hypothyroidism. ¹⁰

“Furthermore, injection site fibrosarcomas have recently been documented in dogs as well as cats, and other cancers such as leukemia have been vaccine-associated.” ^{7, 18}

References

1. Dodds WJ. Immune-mediated diseases of the blood.  Adv Vet Sci Comp Med 1983; 27:163-196.


2. Phillips TR, Jensen JL, Rubino MJ, Yang WC, Schultz RD.  Effects on vaccines on the canine immune system.  Can J Vet Res 1989; 53: 154-160.


3. Tizard I. Risks associated with use of live vaccines.  J Am Vet Med Assoc 1990; 196:1851-1858.


4. Duval D, Giger U. Vaccine-associated immune-mediated hemolytic anemia in the dog. J Vet Int Med 1996;10: 290-295.


5. Cohen AD, Shoenfeld Y. Vaccine-induced autoimmunity.  J Autoimmunity 1996; 9: 699-703.


6. Schultz R. Current and future canine and feline vaccination programs. Vet Med 1998; 93:233-254.


7. Dodds WJ. More bumps on the vaccine road. Adv Vet Med 1999; 41: 715-732.


8. HogenEsch H, Azcona-Olivera J, Scott-Moncrieff C, Snyder PW, Glickman LT. Vaccine-induced autoimmunity in the dog. Adv Vet Med 1999; 41:733-744.


9. Dodds WJ.  Vaccination protocols for dogs predisposed to vaccine reactions. J Am An Hosp Assoc 2001; 38: 1-4.


10. Scott-Moncrieff JC, Azcona-Olivera J, Glickman NW, Glickman LT, HogenEsch H. Evaluation of  antithyroglobulin antibodies after routine vaccination in pet and research dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2002; 221: 515-521.


11. Paul MA (chair) et al. Report of the AAHA Canine Vaccine Task Force: 2003 canine vaccine guidelines, recommendations, and supporting literature. AAHA, April 2003, 28 pp.


12. May C, Hammill J, Bennett, D.   Chinese shar pei fever syndrome: A preliminary report. Vet Rec 1992;131: 586-587.


13. Scott-Moncrieff JC, Snyder PW, Glickman LT, Davis EL, Felsburg PJ.  Systemic necrotizing vasculitis in nine young beagles.  J Am Vet Med Assoc 1992; 201: 1553-1558.


14. Dodds WJ. Estimating disease prevalence with health surveys and genetic screening. Adv Vet Sci Comp Med 1995; 39: 29-96.


15. Wilbur LA, Evermann JF, Levings RL, Stoll LR, Starling DE, Spillers CA, Gustafson GA, McKeirnan AJ.  Abortion and death in pregnant bitches associated with a canine vaccine contaminated with blue tongue virus.  J Am Vet Med Assoc 1994; 204:1762-1765.


16. Day MJ, Penhale WJ. Immune-mediated disease in the old English sheepdog. Res Vet Sci 1992; 53: 87-92.


17. Dougherty SA, Center SA. Juvenile onset polyarthritis in Akitas. J Am Vet Med Assoc 1991; 198: 849-855.


18. Vascellari M, Melchiotti E, Bozza MA et al. Fibrosarcomas at presumed sites of injection in dogs: characteristics and comparison with non-vaccination site fibrosarcomas and feline post-vaccinal firosarcomas.  J Vet Med 50 (6): 286-291, 2003.


19. Twark L, Dodds WJ. Clinical use of serum parvovirus and distemper virus antibody titers for determining revaccination strategies in healthy dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2000; 217:1021-1024.


20. Flemming DD, Scott JF. The informed consent doctrine: what veterinarians should tell their clients. J Am Vet Med Assoc 224: 1436-1439, 2004.


21. Klingborg DJ, Hustead DR, Curry-Galvin E, et al.  AVMA Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents’ report on cat and dog vaccines.  J  Am Vet Med Assoc 221: 1401-1407, 2002.


22. Schultz RD, Ford RB, Olsen J, Scott F.  Titer testing and vaccination: a new look at traditional practices. Vet Med, 97: 1-13, 2002 (insert).


23. Moore et al, Adverse events diagnosed within three days of vaccine administration in dogs.  J  Am Vet Med Assoc 227:1102–1108, 2005.

“If I was in private practice today, I would only use a conservative puppy or kitten series (2-3 doses only) of vaccines: one before 12 weeks in puppies and 10 weeks in kittens; and a second between 14-16 weeks in puppies and 12-14 weeks in kittens. All vaccines should be 3-4 weeks apart.  I would not vaccinate beyond the puppy and kitten series, and I would not worry about income impact, regardless, as our veterinary oath requires that we “do no harm”.  Judicious use of vaccines is paramount.

“I don’t feel any professional pressure to keep quiet on the vaccine issue.  I’ve been teaching it for more than 40 years!  It must be understood that this is an educational problem that needs to start with the veterinarian so that he or she can educate the clients and public in general.

“I totally embrace my profession and always have, but the pharmaceutical industry has considerable influence on it; there is a huge marketing effort here – that’s their job. We are the ones that need to ‘sift’ this information appropriately. We, the consumer professionals, have allowed this influence to go unchecked.  It’s time for senior members of our profession to step up and place controls on the commercial influence upon relatively naive veterinary students and new graduates. This influence is even stronger in the pet food and supplements industry.  The government also needs to be more proactive and keep up to date.

“With regard to traditional veterinary products such as steroids, NSAIDs, preventatives and antibiotics, we as professionals using these products need to more effectively reign-in commercialism.

“The culprits behind ill health in companion animals are environmental factors, including drugs, chemicals, pesticides, toxins and preventatives like vaccines and those used to control fleas, ticks, and heartworms, superimposed on genetic predisposition.  This is especially problematic for inbred and linebred breeds of dogs and cats, which are more genetically alike, and can respond adversely to any one or more of these immunological ‘insults’.”

Excerpted from Vets on Vaccines, Dogs Naturally Magazine.

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