Hier een interessant artikel over vaccineren pups:
http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com
Taking The Risk Out Of Puppy Shots
Written by Dogs Naturally Magazine on July 12, 2011.
Posted in Vaccine Articles and News32 Comments
Pet owners are becoming increasingly aware of the long period of duration for vaccines and are vaccinating every three years, or not vaccinating their adult or senior dogs at all. Although it is becoming increasingly obvious that yearly boosters – or any boosters – are at best unnecessary and at worst harmful, the risks and benefits of puppy vaccination are much less clear. If you choose to vaccinate your puppy, you can limit (but not eliminate) the vaccine damage in your puppy by understanding a few things about vaccines and immunity.
As we know, puppies are given a series of several vaccinations, spaced two to four weeks apart. This practice might lead some people – and some vets – to believe that it takes more than one vaccination, or that vaccinations need to be boostered, for the puppy to be protected. This is simply not true: it takes only one vaccination for a puppy to be protected. So why are puppies vaccinated three or four times instead of just once?
Maternal Antibodies
When puppies are very young, they are protected from disease by ingesting their mother’s first milk, called colostrum. This rich milk contains maternal antibodies against disease which the mother passes down to her puppies. The puppy’s immune system is not fully mature, or active, until it is around six months of age, so the maternal antibodies provide passive immunity for each puppy.
When a puppy with a reasonable amount of maternal antibodies is vaccinated, the maternal antibodies will essentially inactivate the vaccine, just as it would a real virus. What they can not do however, is protect the puppy against the other toxins contained in vaccines such as the chemical adjuvants and preservatives which contain harmful chemicals including mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde. The adjuvants are designed to stimulate an exaggerated immune response, to make certain that the body responds to the small amount of virus contained in the vaccine. Unfortunately, this heightened reaction can also cause autoimmune disorders which are affecting an alarming number of dogs and can include allergies, cancer, thyroid disease, digestive diseases, joint disease and a rather long laundry list of common afflictions.
Vets and pet owners used to believe that ‘more is better’ when applying vaccines, but we now know that there are very real dangers associated with vaccination. So, when designing a puppy vaccination schedule, the goal is to catch the small window in time when the maternal antibodies are low enough that they will not block the vaccine, but the puppy is young enough that he is not put in unnecessary danger from exposure to viruses in the environment.
Maternal antibodies weaken over time but the rate of weakening differs between different dogs and even different breeds. The maternal antibodies for Distemper are fairly predictable and are usually low enough for vaccination to be effective at 8 or 9 weeks of age. The maternal antibodies for Parvo however, are much less predictable in their decline, and can last as long as 26 weeks in some dogs.
This lack of predictability is why puppies are vaccinated every two to four weeks until 16 weeks of age: vets are trying to catch the window in time when the maternal antibodies are low enough for the vaccine to be accepted. If you are concerned about the risks of vaccination – and you should be – then this vaccine schedule really doesn’t make much sense as vaccinations may be given too soon or after the puppy is already protected.
Intelligent Vaccination
Noted immunologist Dr. Ronald Schultz has addressed this issue and recommends a minimal vaccine program that includes one vaccination for Parvo, Distemper and Adenovirus, given at 12 weeks of age. Twelve weeks is not an arbitrary number – it is the earliest age where a combination parvo/distemper vaccine will have the greatest chance of protecting puppies.
Pfizer performed an interesting field study in 1996. C. Hoare, P. DeBouck and A. Wiseman assessed vaccinated puppies and split them into two groups. Group A received a single vaccination at 12 weeks and Group B received a first vaccine between 8 to 10 weeks and a second at 12 weeks. When titers were measured, 100% of the puppies vaccinated once at 12 weeks seroconverted whereas only 94% of the puppies in Group B seroconverted – despite receiving two vaccines as opposed to one. It would appear that if the first vaccine is given too early it could, in some cases, block the the second vaccine. So vaccinating your puppy twice not only increases his risk for adverse reactions to the vaccine, it appears to make vaccination less effective overall.
Vanguard also tested the Parvovirus response in their combination vaccine. They vaccinated puppies at 6 weeks, 9 weeks and 12 weeks of age and then measured their response to the vaccine by measuring their titers to Parvovirus. At 6 weeks, only 52% of the puppies had seroconverted, meaning that the puppies vaccinated at 6 weeks of age would get all of the risk from the vaccine and none of the benefit because their maternal antibodies inactivated the vaccine. At 9 weeks, 88% of the puppies showed a response to the vaccine. At 12 weeks, 100% of the puppies were protected.
It appears that 12 weeks would be the magic number where vaccines have a nearly 100% chance of working, meaning that your puppy should only need one – for his entire life. Dr. Schultz has done similar research with the distemper vaccine.
In his study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, designed to mimic an animal shelter environment, Dr. Schultz vaccinated with one dose of Distemper vaccine just four hours prior to the puppies being placed in a room with Distemper-infected/diseased dogs. All of the puppies (which were vaccinated at 12 weeks), were protected against distemper in this challenge study.
Although two and even 3 doses of vaccine were the original recommendations made in the AAHA 2003 Canine Vaccine Guideline, the research shows that the series of vaccinations is unnecessary. Puppies vaccinated once at 12 weeks of age with a high titer vaccine have a virtually 100% chance of being protected. If you feel you must vaccinate your puppy but want to reduce the risk as much as possible, vaccinating once at 12 weeks is a safe and effective approach. If you are not comfortable with just one vaccine, have your vet run a titer test three weeks after the vaccination. If there is circulating antibody (any amount will do), it is highly likely he has seroconverted and he will be protected for life. If you are not sure of this fact, you might want to read this article.
It is important to note that if you wait until 12 weeks of age to vaccinate your puppy, you should keep him away from areas where there is a lot of dog traffic. One such area is the vet’s office! If you must bring your puppy under 12 weeks to the vet, it is important to carry him in and out as this is likely the most likely place for him to pick up viruses. Your best bet is to get the first appointment of the day when you know the floors and tables will be at their cleanest. Despite the heavy vaccination schedules, 28% of vaccinated puppies still get Parvovirus. Part of the reason is that they are exposed to the vet’s office where it is highly likely that he will come into contact with Parvovirus or shed virus from vaccinated dogs on the property.
Vaccination has the very real risk of creating chronic, debilitating disease. Most vets and dog owners do not see the connection because it can take weeks, months or years after vaccination for these diseases to develop. Many holistic vets and dog owners avoid vaccinations completely. If you are not comfortable with this approach, the next best thing you can do to protect your puppy is to vaccinate intelligently. Needlessly stressing your puppy’s immune system with vaccinations every two to four weeks is no longer a safe option for many dog owners. Find a vet who agrees with this approach and you will reduce the risk of autoimmune disease in your puppy – now and in the future.
Related posts:
1.Combination Shots for Dogs: Weapons of Over-Vaccination
2.Puppy Biting
3.Titers: What Do They Mean?
Titers: What Do They Mean?
Written by Dogs Naturally Magazine on December 9, 2010.
Posted in Vaccine Articles and News6 Comments
Many vets and pet owners are fond of using titers to determine whether a dog requires revaccination with the understanding that a low titre equals low immunity. Wouldn’t it be nice if that were true, but unfortunately it is not. The ability of titers to accurately measure immunity is limited because it measures only a portion of the body’s immune function.
Viruses can not replicate on their own and must invade our bodies and hijack our cells and cellular machinery to replicate. This means that once a virus invades our body, it is in our own cells. The defense system against these viruses is twofold and can be divided into cellular immunity and humoral immunity.
As the name implies, cellular immunity works on a cellular level where T cells are able to detect which of our cells contain the unwanted virus and work to destroy it. When our T cells are activated against a virus, they file the information away for future use and this allows them to respond much quicker the next time the body is faced with the virus. These cells are always reproducing and they pass this memory on to their ‘children’ and this memory exists for life. This explains how we are immune to many viruses after getting them once.
Humoral immunity is like the front line troops that work outside the cellular fortress: it is the first line of defense. Humoral immunity occurs in the body fluids where B cells float around on sentry duty. When B cells come into contact with antigens (for example, proteins from a virus), they activate antibodies which identify and neutralize foreign proteins. Each antibody is responsible for a different antigen, so some might be responsible for distemper, some for parvovirus, etc. After an antibody is successful at neutralizing any antigens, it will float around the body for years, working as a sentry. Like T cells, B cells develop a memory which allows them to respond quicker and with more force the next time they come across the same virus.
A titer is capable of measuring only a small part of the active immune system: the circulating antibodies. If a titre is high, it is a good assumption that the immune system is perfectly capable of a successful response to the antigen in question. So if your dog has a high titer for parvo, it is extremely unlikely that he will suffer the disease, even if he is exposed to parvovirus. If there are parovovirus antibodies circulating in his system, then the immune system is fully armed and ready to protect him.
What if the circulating antibodies are low? Does that mean that immunity is low? Well, the answer is no. Immunity is an all or nothing thing: a dog is either immune or he is not. There is no grey area or sliding scale. According to Dr. Ronald Schultz, any amount of titer means your dog is protected.
If a titer is zero, it really has no predictive value. Memory cells exist for the life of the animal but circulating antibodies may or may not. Just because circulating antibodies are low (and therefore the titer is low), does not mean that your dog can not fight infection if exposed to parvovirus (or any other virus). There may not be circulating antibodies present, but the memory cells are there and waiting to launch a quick and powerful attack on parvovirus antigens, activating the antibodies and neutralizing any threat.
Based on this, what is the predictive value of a titer? Well, any amount of titer has a very good predictive value. If a there is any circulating antibody present, then your dog is either suffering from the disease or has successfully fought it in the past and can expected to do so in the future without further vaccination. If a titer is zero, then it is of little value as it comes down to guesswork.
In order to avoid the possibility of a negative titer, the best practice is to titer a puppy right after vaccination. If you were to vaccinate a puppy and run a titer about three weeks afterward, it would have wonderful predictive value. If there is any amount of titer, then there are circulating antibodies against the parvo or distemper virus. If this is the case, then it is extremely likely that memory cells will have been produced and your puppy is protected for life. There is no need for further titers and certainly no need for further vaccination. This would be the best use of a titer test as a negative titer would now have predictive value, meaning there was either vaccine failure or passive immunity (maternal antibodies) blocked the vaccine (which is possible for up to 26 weeks of age with parvovirus).
If more vets, breeders and puppy owners used titers in this manner, instead of simply vaccinating at three or four week intervals, trying to catch the period in time when passive immunity is low enough for the vaccine to work, most puppies would only need to be vaccinated once instead of multiple times. It would take a lot of the guesswork out of a vaccine schedule and eliminate the need for unnecessary and potentially dangerous vaccinations.
Five Things Your Vet Says That Aren’t True
Written by Dogs Naturally Magazine on June 22, 2012.
Posted in Vaccine Articles and News31 Comments
At Dogs Naturally, we’re both saddened and amused when surfing through veterinary clinic websites. We decided to post a Top Five List of some of the just plain bad vaccine advice commonly dispensed by vets. Here are some real snippets of wisdom, pulled off various veterinary websites.
1. Prevention is better than cure. Vaccination is the way we cause animals to become resistant (immune) to infections. A vaccine consists of a modified or killed virus or bacterium. It is prepared in such a way that the body’s defences recognise it as a threat and react to it as if it were a real infection. The body will produce antibodies which are proteins which recognise and attach to chemicals on the surface of the organism, killing it. These antibodies are then available to kill any of the real infection organisms the animal might pick up during its life. They are lost gradually and the body needs occasional reminders (booster vaccinations) to keep the antibody level high enough to prevent real infections. Vaccination reactions are very rare. A booster is recommended each year.
The body does not react to a vaccine the same way it would to the real disease. When exposed to real virus, the body forms immunity by filing that information away in memory cells. The memory cells, called cellular immunity, are reponsible for mounting a quick attack the next time they are faced with the same disease and the body, armed with the knowledge the memory cells have stored away, quickly neutralizes the disease by triggering circulating antibodies. This is why humans only get chicken pox once and dogs can only get parvovirus once. After the first episode, they are protected for life.
Vaccines try to emulate this, but they don’t do a complete job. Vaccines stimulate circulating antibodies, called humeral immunity, and they bypass the memory cells. This creates an artificial immunity called humeral bias and this essentially turns the immune system inside out. To learn more about this effect, read our article on Vaccines And The Immune System.
But the real problem with this statement is wanting antibody levels to be high. High antibody levels mean high levels of circulating antibodies – or humeral bias. The higher the titer, the more chronically inflamed the body is. This humeral bias and resulting chronic inflammation result in many of the autoimmune diseases we commonly see in dogs today: allergies, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, bowel disease and many, many more. Vaccine reactions may be rare, but the risk and severity of chronic disease that vaccines cause increase with every vaccine given.
2. Your puppy vaccination course should be started at 6 weeks of age. A primary vaccination is first given and a booster 2-4 weeks later. This course must be completed before your puppy is fully protected. Unfortunately the protection provided by vaccinating is not life-long and hence an annual booster is recommended. At ________ veterinary clinic we will send you out an annual reminder to ensure your pet is kept up to date and protected.
Vaccinating a puppy at 6 weeks? According to veterinary vaccine researcher Dr. Jean Dodds, only 30% of puppies will be protected from a vaccine given at 6 weeks of age: yet 100% of them will be exposed to disease when taken to the vet clinic for that shot. Moreover, vaccines create immune suppression for 10 to 14 days. So, choosing to vaccinate a puppy at 6 weeks means exposing him to the most disease ridden location he could possibly be in – the vet clinic, creating immune suppression so he is much more likely to get the disease he is being vaccinating for, and all in exchange for a 30% chance the vaccine will work. That’s a pretty high gamble with a puppy’s life.
The reason the vaccine is unlikely to work at that young age is because the puppy is protected against disease with maternal antibodies – immunity passed down from his mother. This protection wanes over time, but is still pretty strong at 6 weeks. That’s why in most cases the vaccine doesn’t work: the maternal antibodies are strong enough to block the vaccine. Actually this should be in the past tense: the maternal antibodies will be less effective after the vaccine is given because vaccines cause immune suppression.
Problem number two is this statement: “This course must be completed before your puppy is fully protected.” There are two problems with this statement actually. One, you can’t be partially protected: it’s like being a virgin, you either are or you aren’t. Either the immune system has filed that information away or it hasn’t: there is no grey area, you are either immune or you are not. As for the other problem, a course of vaccines is not necessary: it only takes ONE vaccine to protect a puppy – ONE. For more information on this, you might want to read Taking The Risk Out Of Puppy Shots.
3. Primary pet vaccinations do not cover your animal for the rest of their life, so annual booster vaccinations are required for continued protection.
Wow,bad grammar aside, there is one very big problem with this statement – a monumental problem of biblical proportions! Not only do core vaccines last for the life of the animal, they’ve known about this for about forty years! We won’t even go into why annual vaccination is a very, very bad choice – because vaccinating every three years or every five years is also a bad choice, based on unsound science. Nuff said. Think we’re making this up? You might want to read Lifelong Immunity: Why Vets Are Pushing Back for more information.
4. At ______ Veterinary Hospital, we are aware of some of the controversy currently surrounding immunization protocols. However, until industry leaders and experts, such as the vaccine manufacturers and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), arrive at some definitive conclusions, we believe it to be in the best interest of your pet and the general public to continue to adhere to our established immunization protocols. We recommend that your pet should receive annual boosters.
Controversy? Industry leaders and experts? Here is the crux of the problem: these vets are waiting for the vaccine manufacturers and the AVMA to decide how often to vaccinate. Don’t you think that both of these entities have a financial interest in how often you vaccinate your dog? Are they capable of making an unbiased recommendation? Apparently not.
The report of the American Animal Hospital Association Canine Vaccine Taskforce in JAAHA (39 March/April 2003) includes the following information for vets:
‘Misunderstanding, misinformation and the conservative nature of our profession have largely slowed adoption of protocols advocating decreased frequency of vaccination; Immunological memory provides durations of immunity for core infectious diseases that far exceed the traditional recommendations for annual vaccination.’
‘This is supported by a growing body of veterinary information as well-developed epidemiological vigilance in human medicine that indicates immunity induced by vaccination is extremely long lasting and, in most cases, lifelong.’
If you would like to read more about how vets arbitrarily chose the period of three years for revaccination, even though they knew back in 2003 that vaccines lasted likely for the life of the dog, read Lifelong Immunity And The AAHA Revaccination Guidelines.
5. Annual boosters are painless for your pet, and help to fight off contagious illnesses throughout the year. The staff at ______ Veterinary Clinic are expertly trained in the welfare of your pet.
Any vet who advocates annual vaccinations – or even uses the term booster – is clearly not expertly trained in the welfare of your pet. In fact, most vets are woefully inept when it comes to understanding immunity. They are very good at giving vaccines – yet most vets are not taught very much about immunity at all. Perhaps that’s because immunity is taught by the vaccine manufacturers – it’s no wonder that vets are well armed with needles yet lack the knowledge to question just what damage those needles are doing. If you would like to learn more about how little vets feel they were taught about vaccination, and the disease they saw vaccines create in their patients, read our ground-breaking featured article, Vets On Vaccines.
In the end, it doesn’t matter whether vets spew this bad advice out of ignorance or for financial gain (most veterinary practices rely on vaccine money to stay in business). Either way, the bad advice is out there and dog owners – and dogs – will fall victim to that bad advice. If you find your vet dispensing bad vaccine advice, don’t ignore it. Perhaps reading and sharing What Every Vet (And Pet Owner) Should Know About Vaccines will help you both to begin understanding that vaccination involves more than just shots and boosters.
, ik wil me heus zelf wel inlezen maar als je op een dierenarts die titert ook niet kan vertrouwen wordt het wel heel lastig vind ik.
