Canada recently lost its measles-free status, in large part because of a slip in our overall vaccination rate. A lot of that has been driven by vaccine hesitancy. The resurgence of measles in people shows what can happen when we aren’t using one of our best control methods (vaccination) optimally.
Vaccine hesitancy is an issue
When I was in general practice, we gave puppies and kittens their first rabies vaccine at 16 weeks of age. I didn’t ask why, it’s just what the clinic did, so as a new grad, that’s what I did. This practice is (unfortunately) still common in a lot of clinics; however, all rabies vaccines approved
Cat colonies present some interesting infectious disease challenges. Anytime we have animals congregating, there’s an increased risk of disease transmission, and when they’re outside, it also increases the risk of diseases from wildlife. Thus cat colonies can become a bridge for diseases between wildlife and people.
I’ll pause here to add a perspective that I’d
Lately, there have been quite a few news reports about canine parvovirus in London, Ontario. Overall the report have been pretty balanced, highlighting the fact that parvo is causing problems but not overplaying the issue (which happens all too often). Some reports have said there’s an “outbreak” of parvo in an area.
Sometimes a
Veterinarians sometimes ask me, “Can I give a half dose of a vaccine to small breed dogs?” But more often they say, “An owner wants me to give their small dog a half dose of a vaccine because they are worried about adverse effects. Should I do that?”
The short answer
I’ve written a lot in general about the risks of rabies and other infectious diseases from imported dogs. However, we have to remember that borders are political, not biological, and that rabies (like certain US presidents) doesn’t respect such borders, whether they’re between countries or between provinces.
Whenever we move animals or people, we risk
Most people don’t realize the massive number of dogs that are imported into Canada every year, for all kinds of reasons: from people moving with their own pet, to importation of large shipments of dogs from puppy mills or rescues (the latter ranging from really good operations to really dodgy). Moving animals (or people)
TLDR: Nope.
These days I commonly get the question ”Does vaccination of dogs with available canine influenza vaccines protect them from H5N1 avian flu?” While we don’t have any hard data on this, we still have a pretty good idea of the answer.
One of the challenges with flu vaccination (in any
Recently, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) designated leptospirosis vaccination to be a “core” vaccination in dogs. That means it’s recommended for all dogs. I’ve had a lot of veterinarians asking questions about this, since traditionally leptospirosis vaccination has been positioned as “optional” based on an individual dog’s risk of exposure.
I’ve considered this
Our latest WormsAndGermsPod episode is a chat with Andy Gibson and Ian Battersby about canine rabies and, in particular, the work of Mission Rabies to help achieve the goal of zero canine-mediated rabies deaths by 2030.
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