I was tired and uninspired today, so I had decided to just copy from a post I made elsewhere about animal vaccinations. Then I started writing an intro and before I knew it had typed out part of a post about vaccines that I’ve been thinking of writing anyway. Then Meredith woke up and it was only half done, so I’m going back to my original plan of just copying the post I had already written out elsewhere, but at some point this week I will be posting more on vaccines in general. In fact, I think it may even become two more posts, to split it up somewhat. One about the the vaccines themselves and their history, and one about the diseases vaccines are meant to prevent.
For today though, here are some links and articles about vaccines in animals. Most people don’t realize that the reason we are supposed to vaccinate animals yearly is because that is the longest any official tests to determine whether they are still working have been done. It doesn’t mean that after a year the vaccine has stopped working or is losing efficacy, it means we don’t know how much longer than a year they will continue to work. Many studies have been done which show that vaccines last a lot longer than that, some say the animal’s whole life.
Truth About Vaccines Yahoo group -a group for pet owners but they discuss vaccines in children at times too
Some articles/studies:
Annual Dog Vaccines May Be Unnecessary
Once a year, Ronald Schultz checks the antibody levels in his dogs’ blood. Why? He says for proof that most annual vaccines are unnecessary.
Schultz, professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, has been studying the effectiveness of canine vaccines since the 1970s; he’s learned that immunity can last as long as a dog’s lifetime, which suggests that our “best friends” are being overvaccinated.
Based on his findings, a community of canine vaccine experts has developed new veterinary recommendations that could eliminate a dog’s need for annual shots.
Vaccinations in Veterinary Medicine
Summary: Yearly “boosters” are unnecessary, provide no benefit if given (will not increase immunity). Thus boosters are either a legal issue (Rabies) or a manipulation issue (inducing clients to come in for examination rather than directly suggesting an examination).
Vaccinations: A Word of Caution for our Animals – Part I and Part II
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…
Heartworm: A Realistic Look – This is about heartworm, not vaccines, but is along the same lines. I find this interesting because of all the different factors that have to be just right for an animal to even contract heartworm in the first place.
Heartworm is of concern to all dog owners, and is a potentially serious, sometimes even fatal, disease. It is not, however, the unavoidable scourge that many vets and pharmaceutical companies would have us believe. If your dog is reasonably healthy, eating a SARF diet, is vaccine free, is not currently on any HW “preventives” or chemical flea and tick preventives, his immune system should be strong enough to fight off a heartworm infestation with none of the larvae reaching adulthood. In the event that some of the larvae should manage to get past your dog’s immune system defenses and survive to adulthood, it is still far from a death sentence. They will be much weakened, and the truly healthy dog will make a less hospitable host. Even at the adult stage, a healthy dog, possibly with some veterinary assistance, should be able to fight them off with no lasting ill effects to his health. Nor are the currently available cures more dangerous than the “preventive,” as the veterinary and pharmaceutical industries would have us believe.
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Very interesting. Thanks for all that information! Cheers, Katherine