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Vaccines: Vaccinations May Fail to Work
back to Client Information Vaccinations have prevented disease in millions of pets for many years. Unfortunately, there is that one very rare pet that still breaks with a particular disease after being vaccinated for that disease. There are several explanations for that occurrence: The particular strain of vaccine was different from what caused the disease. There are a multitude of "strains" of a particular virus family. In most diseases, the strain of virus used in the vaccine will also protect against other strains in that particular virus family. Occasionally the strain does not cross-react and protect against another strain. The vaccine was ineffective. Vaccines are sensitive to temperature and light. There is no good way to tell if a vaccine is active once it leaves the manufacturer's quality control facility. The vaccine may have become too warm during transit, or even been allowed to sit out of refrigeration for too long at either the distributor's warehouse or at the facility of the end-user. This is a common problem in situations where the worker has no particular medical training, such as a feed store or mail order house. Veterinarians routinely refuse to accept shipments if the vaccine appears to warm upon arrival. Some pets are not capable of producing immunity after vaccination. In some cases, the pet is simply not healthy. Malnutrition and stress (such as environment or other disease) can prevent the body's immune system from working properly. There is also the occasional pet, just like in humans, that had a failure of the immune system to develop properly after birth. The pet was in the "incubation period" for the disease. It takes several days for the vaccine to stimulate immunity after the vaccination is administered. If the pet is exposed to the disease before immunity has time to develop, it can still get sick if exposed to the disease. During the incubation period, no clinical signs of disease are present. Therefore the disease cannot be diagnosed at that early stage. Maternal antibody interference. When a pet is borne, it receives antibodies called 'passive immunity' from its mother's milk. These antibodies protect the newborn until its own immune system can mature and produce its own immunity, which is called active immunity. When these antibodies received from the mother are still present at high levels, they will block the stimulation of active immunity from exposure to a vaccine. Unfortunately, it is very costly to run a test that will predict when the passive immunity level drops low enough for active immunity stimulation to occur. The vaccine's ability to stimulate immunity lasts for approximately 5 days after vaccination. If exposure to the disease occurs after these 5 days and before the next vaccination is administered or before it has time to develop the active immunity, a disease outbreak can occur. This is the reason a series of vaccinations is required in the initial series of vaccinations in the pediatric pet. back to Client Information |
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Phone: (619) 276-1616 - 3024 Hancock Street, San Diego CA 92110 |
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