Background
The first problem the Pet Parents’ Action Group will address
For the past few years, Canine Health Concern has been corresponding with the British Veterinary Medicines Directorate which licenses veterinary drugs. We asked for the withdrawal of one-year vaccines against the core canine diseases, since it is known that there is no justification for vaccinating annually. This government licensing department consistently refused to do this. Its then chief executive – Steve Dean – insisted that dogs should be vaccinated at least every three years, which is in itself contrary to World Small Animal Veterinary Association guidelines.
But once Steve Dean retired, he wrote publicly in Dog World:
“Whatever you choose for your dog, the minimum immunisation in the form of a course of puppy vaccines, offers protection that could prove life-long.”
What this indicates is that someone is pulling the strings behind the government’s official face. Someone, or some powerful lobby, is trying to protect vaccine industry income. Despite writing to our political representatives, no-one is prepared to legislate to prevent over-vaccination.
Veterinarians leave college largely unaware of the scientific studies relating to vaccine adverse effects – because the colleges rely upon vaccine industry funding. They continue to vaccinate annually because this is something the profession has ‘always done’. Neither are vets educated impartially with regard to diet. Most veterinary colleges allow commercial pet food companies to ‘teach’ this vital subject to trainee vets. And due to the financial power of the veterinary pharmaceutical industry, student vets are discouraged from investigating complementary therapies that might improve health without the side-effects of drugs.
Sponsorship – a real problem
It must be noted that whilst veterinary bodies such as the World Small Animal Veterinary Association say we should vaccinate against the core diseases ‘no more than every three years’, the experts (including Dr Schultz and Dr W Jean Dodds) make it clear that it is not necessary to vaccinate three-yearly. They tell us that once immune to viral disease, dogs and cats remain immune for years or life.
Why would veterinary bodies give us this three-yearly revaccination guidance, rather than state the plain fact that core vaccines provide lifelong protection? Apart from the fact that booster income represents a major part of the profitability of veterinary practices, could it be because the professional bodies receive funds from the veterinary vaccine industry?
The AAHA is sponsored by four vaccine manufacturers: Merck, Merial, Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim. The WSAVA Vaccine Guidelines Group is sponsored by Intervet Schering-Plough Animal Health. Scratch beneath the surface of any veterinary body, and industry sponsorship is there. Sponsorship is a real and serious problem afflicting the pet world. Apart from the teaching establishments – which rely upon industry money for research, bursaries, academic salaries, new buildings, and so on – vets in practice receive their mandatory further education via industry dinners, seminars, and overseas trips.
Animal charities are also grateful to receive free food for their kennels and the odd few thousand pounds to help them achieve their aims.
The problem is that all of these organisations must avoid saying anything that will cause their sponsors to withhold funding.
So – according to the experts – most puppies will be protected against distemper, parvovirus and adenovirus for life from their puppy shots.
Why over-vaccination is a problem
Despite spending years researching and communicating directly to dog lovers, and years lobbying government, veterinarians, and the pet industry itself, there are still too many vets vaccinating annually worldwide, and still too many dog lovers who are being misled into over-vaccinating their friends.
The result is that there are too many dogs suffering from vaccine-induced diseases. Here is the list of adverse events known to be induced by vaccines (Schultz, 2007):
Common Reactions:
. Lethargy
. Hair Loss, hair color change at injection site
. Fever
. Soreness, stiffness
. Refusal to eat
. Conjunctivitis
. Sneezing
. Oral ulcers
Moderate Reactions:
. Immunosuppression
. Behavioral changes
. Vitiligo (skin reactions)
. Weight loss (Cachexia)
. Reduced milk production
. Lameness
. Granulomas/Abscesses
. Hives
. Facial Edema (swelling)
. Atopy (hereditary allergies)
. Respiratory disease
. Allergic Uveitis (Blue Eye)
Severe Reactions triggered by Vaccines:
. Vaccine injection site sarcomas
. Anaphylaxis (rapidly progressing life-threatening allergic reaction)
. Arthritis, polyarthritis
. HOD hypertrophy osteodystrophy
. Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia
. Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia (IMTP)
. Hemolytic disease of the newborn (Neonatal Isoerythrolysis)
. Thyroiditis
. Glomerulonephritis
. Disease or enhanced disease which the vaccine was designed to prevent
. Myocarditis
. Post vaccinal Encephalitis or polyneuritis
. Seizures
. Abortion, congenital anomalies, embryonic/fetal death, failure to conceive
A real problem, as stated earlier, is that vets are not educated about these possible adverse reactions in college. Many reactions happen days, months or even years after a vaccine is given. Vets are not told about this, and therefore they are largely unaware of the damage caused by over-vaccination.
The first direct action by the Pet Parents’ Action Group will be to send vets the scientific references so that they can satisfy themselves that vaccines can indeed create these diseases.
For example, a paper published last year showed that a number of canine and feline vaccine brands in the UK are contaminated with RD-114, a feline retrovirus. Retroviruses are associated with the development of autoimmunity, cancer and leukaemia, but it can take around five years for the cancer to show itself. Five years! No-one will connect the dots unless they are educated to do so.
The British Veterinary Medicines Directorate (the government licensing body) and its European counterparts voted recently to allow RD-114 to stay in pet vaccines, possibly for years. Removal is technically easy – but it would take years to re-license the clean products, which means years of lost revenue for the vaccine industry. As usual, government legislators vote in favour of big business to the detriment of our pets.
Unrecognised damage
At one time, it was thought that the vaccine process was a fairly harmless procedure, with only rare and minimal adverse events.
Scientists have known about anaphylactic shock for a long time, which is where an individual (whether human or animal) will have a rare but immediate and severe allergic reaction to the vaccine. Without adrenaline or similar drug, the individual will die. Because this reaction is so rare, and because the diseases we vaccinate are so serious, it was decided by the powers that be that vaccines were worth the risk.
It was also known that individual dogs and cats could have a mild and temporary reaction to their shots, involving lethargy, fever and diarrhoea. More recently, scientists have shown that autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (a severe and life-threatening blood disease) and vaccine site cancer, especially in cats but also in dogs, can be created by vaccines.
However, scientific understanding has moved on considerably in recent years. The problem is that the science – which is detailed and complex – has not been adequately shared with the veterinary profession and its clients.
The truth is that vaccines can, and do, provoke serious and life-threatening adverse reactions that are not easily connected to the vaccine itself, although scientific research does point towards the trends. The fact is, there is no test to show whether an individual dog or cat has had a vaccine reaction. To make a connection, vets must tie the onset of the disease in with a recent vaccine event, and understand the science: they need to know what vaccines have been scientifically shown to do. The fact is, mostly all of the illnesses experienced by dogs and cats have the potential to be vaccine-related.
Unless you know that vaccines can cause arthritis, for example, you may not connect a vaccine with arthritis arising months after an animal is vaccinated. You may not know that vaccines can trigger leukaemia or cancer months, or even years, down the line. You might not realise that your dog’s brain damage, involving sudden aggression, epilepsy, and/or fearfulness, can be vaccine-induced. Few people understand the science to say that skin and digestive problems can also be vaccine-induced, or that diabetes, thyroid disease, organ failure or genetic faults can be caused by vaccines.
Not knowing all this, vets continue to vaccinate annually as if it were a harmless procedure.
Importantly, no-one may have told you that you don’t actually need to vaccinate your dog or cat every year.
Although this has been known since the 1970s, the veterinary profession has not taken it on board, and the veterinary pharmaceutical industry still tries to convince pet owners that annual shots are needed. Most shamefully in the UK, dog and cat owners are still being persuaded to bring their friends in for boosters if they have ‘lapsed’ by 18 months under Intervet’s National Vaccination Month, also called ‘Vaccine Amnesty’.
Although Canine Health Concern has vigorously brought the annual vaccination travesty to the attention of legislators, they will not act. Why? Because, worldwide, licensing bodies appear to act as a wing of the pharmaceutical industry. This doesn’t just apply to the UK – the problem is international.
Expert Guidelines -
How often do we need to vaccinate?
Research conducted by Dr Ronald Schultz, in which dogs were exposed to distemper and parvovirus, showed that every single dog was protected when exposed to the viruses – up to 11 years after they were first vaccinated.
Based on this research, Dr Schultz recommended triennial revaccination instead of annual revaccination. (He now suggests that one puppy shot is all that is needed.)
These early recommendations prompted the American Animal Hospital Association to assemble a task force. In 2003, the AAHA Canine Vaccine Task Force evaluated the data from these challenge and serological studies and, while noting that the core vaccines had a minimum duration of immunity of at least seven years, they compromised with the statement that “revaccination every three years is considered protective”.
Task force member Dr. Richard Ford, Professor of Medicine, North Carolina State University, said that the decision to recommend a three year revaccination schedule for core vaccines was a compromise. “It’s completely arbitrary…,” he said. “I will say there is no science behind the three-year recommendation…”
After the 2003 task force, all of the major veterinary vaccine manufacturers completed their own studies showing a minimum three year duration of immunity (DOI) on the core vaccines – distemper, parvo and adenovirus. Why didn’t they do this sooner? Because no-one had asked them to. The veterinary drug licensing bodies only asked for proof of efficacy for one year! This was their license to over-vaccinate.
Dr Schultz continued with his work and by 2006, had performed seven additional DOI studies on over 1,000 dogs and repeated the same results over and over again, effectively showing that dogs were protected for much longer than three years and most likely for the life of the dog. In fact, so sure was Dr. Schultz of his work, that his own vaccination protocol for his dogs was one shot of distemper, parvo and adenovirus - and none thereafter.
In 2003, the AAHA Task Force advised vets of the following in regard to their three year recommendation: “This is supported by a growing body of veterinary information and well-developed epidemiological vigilance in human medicine that indicates immunity induced by vaccination is extremely long lasting and, in most cases, lifelong.”
What about the other vaccines?
Leptospirosis vaccine is used routinely by the veterinary profession, heavily influenced by the veterinary vaccine industry. However, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association deems this a non-core (optional) vaccine and cautions that it should be used only if there is a serious disease threat in the area.
Leptospirosis is a rare disease, and the vaccine is associated with severe adverse reactions, especially neurological (brain damage). Small dogs are at greatest risk from this vaccine. Further, there are hundreds of strains of leptospirosis, and only two or three in a vaccine, so the vaccine isn’t terribly protective.
Please ask your vet how many dogs he or she has treated with confirmed leptospirosis in the last six months. As this is a vaccine associated with extreme side-effects, his or her answer will help you to decide whether you wish to give your dogs this optional vaccine.
Kennel cough vaccine is also non-core (optional) but routinely given in the UK. Please note that the datasheets accompanying kennel cough vaccines state that humans with compromised immune systems must avoid contact with vaccinated dogs for up to seven weeks. The vaccine can cause kennel cough in dogs and infect humans and other dogs. This can give rise to epidemics in boarding kennels.
Kennel cough is rarely life-threatening to dogs, but the shed vaccine poses a serious risk to immunocompromised humans.
Join the Pet Parents’ Action Group, and work with us to update the veterinary profession on duration of immunity and vaccine risks.
