- Hello Jeff - They are trying to play this down. Could
some cases of rabies in vaccinated pets, especially in currently-vaccinated
pets, be caused by a change in that particular rabies virus? Is this just
the beginning?
-
- It would be very scary to think of a mutated rabies virus,
one that has enough change to evade our current rabies vaccines.
-
- Patty
-
-
- US Rabies Shows Up In Vaccinated Dogs And Cats
- Worms & Germs Blog
- By Scott Weese
- 10-10-9
-
- A study in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical
Association (Murray et al 2009) investigated rabies vaccination history
of dogs and cats diagnosed with rabies in 21 US states between 1997 and
2001.
-
-
- * 264 rabid dogs and 840 rabid cats were identified.
-
-
- * 4.9% of rabid dogs and 2.6% of rabid cats had a history
of rabies vaccination.
-
-
- * Of the 13 dogs that had been vaccinated, only 2 were
considered currently vaccinated. Similarly of the 22 cats, only 3 were
currently vaccinated.
-
-
- * Texas had the most positive dogs while Pennsylvania
had the most positive cats.
-
- This study cannot determine how effective vaccination
is. You'd need to know the number of dogs that were and were not vaccinated,
and then the number that did or didn't get rabies to determine that. The
fact that a small number of properly vaccinated animals got rabies shows
the vaccine is not 100% protective, which is not surprising.
-
- Vaccination is an important part of rabies prevention
but it's not the only part. Vaccination is a last line of defense, with
avoiding exposure to rabies being the critical first line. To reduce the
risk of rabies exposure, keep your pets under your control at all times.
Keep bats out of the house and try to ensure that your house and yard are
not welcoming to wild animals. Don't let your pets have contact with wildlife
and pay close attention when strangely-acting wildlife are around. Active
measures to reduce wildlife rabies such as rabies baiting are also important.
-
- Don't assume that because your pet is vaccinated, that
you don't have to worry about trying to reduce the risk of exposure to
rabies.
- Don't assume that an animal with neurological disease
doesn't have rabies just because it's been vaccinated.
-
- http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2009/10/articles/
- animals/cats/rabies-in-vaccinated-dogs-and-cats/
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural
Economics Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases"
message board at: http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also
my new website: http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/ Zhan le Devlesa tai
sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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