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  Discussion on To vaccinate or not
Author Message
New Member:
Jjudkins

Posted on Friday, Jan 24, 2003 - 2:47 pm:

I am concerned about the recent building evidence in the veterinary literature that we are overvaccinating our animals. I see the interval requirements for rabies in dogs and cats lengthening in many states but not for horses, as an example. My question is this: Is there a reliable way to measure immunity in horses to various vaccinated illnesses? I have read that serologic studies are costly and unreliable. Is this true? I would certainly fork out the extra cash if I thought I could spare my horses needless vaccinations. Also, are there any good studies showing the average length of time a horse will maintain titers to a disease once it is vaccinated?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jan 25, 2003 - 9:02 am:

Hello Jennifer,
I personally think there is little doubt that given the efficacy of small animal vaccines that a less frequent schedule makes sense. Unfortunately horse vaccines, with the exception of tetanus are not as nearly efficacious. In fact most provide incomplete protection from day 1 and in some cases whether they provide any protection at all is (PHF for instance) uncertain.

So the question applies: "are we over vaccinating our horses(?)" but for an entirely different reason: are the vaccines we are using efficacious and safe. See the article on vaccines for the particulars about each vaccine and be sure to follow the links to the specific diseases. Check out the scientific summaries at the bottom of the article, we keep the most important research on the disease and it's vaccine there.

It is true that titers and degree of protection are not well correlated in equine vaccines but continue to remain the best measure of vaccine efficacy and length of protection. We had a pretty good discussion about this last year and you will find it at, » Care for Horses » Disease Prevention and Health Care » Vaccines and Vaccination Schedules » Titering and vaccination when needed ...
DrO
Member:
Redwood

Posted on Thursday, Jan 30, 2003 - 12:22 am:

I think your articles are saying that we do not know if the common vaccines given to horses protect them longer than six months to a year and that titers are not 100% accurate in determining immunity to disease. Is this correct? I think your advice is that until we have further research on the topic, it is cheaper and safer to vaccinate according to the schedule given. Another article suggests that we don't know if it's better or worse to have combo shots or separate shots for each disease.

This is all very interesting to me. I have the vet out every six months for worming, shots, and teeth floating--all done on the same day. My friend is horrified. She says I'm over-stressing their immune system. I'm also planning to take them in to the equine dentist and have their West Nile Virus shots on the same day. My friend has titers taken. She hasn't vaccinated for almost four years now as her horse still has titers from the various vaccines.

Nancy
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jan 30, 2003 - 8:54 am:

Yes to your first statement and not exactly to your second statement: Which vaccines you use and how often depends on your risks, vaccine efficacy and safety, and what your goals are. The articles on diseases and vaccines tries to provide the factual information for you to do this.

Your friends findings are very interesting. Which diseases is she titering for, where is she having the titers run, and what is the cost of the tests?
DrO
Member:
Redwood

Posted on Friday, Jan 31, 2003 - 11:23 pm:

My friend started testing for titers in 1999, though that year she only did two. In 2000, 2001, and 2002 she had tests for titers for all the standard vaccinations except tetanus. The standard vaccines around here are Eastern and Western Encephalitis, influenza, rhino, rabies, and tetanus. The local vet took the samples and sent them to the lab, so my friend doesn't have the lab's name. The vet could not find a lab that could test for titers for tetanus, so my friend's horse gets a yearly tetanus vaccination. In all the years of testing, her horse has shown titers indicating protection from the diseases. In 2000, my friend paid $174 for the tests, but in 2002 she paid $354.

If you would like to know more about the lab, email me privately and I'll give you the name and phone number for the vet.

Nancy
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Feb 1, 2003 - 10:41 pm:

This is getting too weird, the one vaccine with efficacy almost certainly longer than a year, tetanus, is still given while the other vaccines with field demonstrated efficacies of less than a year (encephalitis being the most important) is not getting done. All at a cost of about 5 times the normal cost of using the vaccinations. And done to prevent a completely uncharacterised problem in horses of over vaccination.

It is not even that I disagree with not giving many of the routine vaccines available to horses, but not because of prolonged efficacies. In the field they have been shown to not be that effective and there always is the very small chance of serious reaction.

The problem with titers is that they do not neccesarily measure the immune components that are responsible for fighting a particular infection. For some diseases the titers can be quite accurate preditors of protection while with others no value at all. Usually we do not know in horse because these issues have not been studied.

Whether studied or not the fact that encephalitis and respiratory infections occur regularly in those that have been vaccinated over a year ago and occasionally in some vaccinated within the last year speaks volumes. But I must say the little bit of objective information on this many milion dollar industry is amazing, often it does feel like we are driving in the dark with our vaccine recommendations.
DrO
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