CANINEINFLUENZA• CarolineCoile continued
basically claimed the vaccination and flu scare were Merck's scheme to sell vaccination; that they had rushed it to market untested; that it was ineffective; that this flu may have already mutated since it was developed and in fact a study in pigs showed that a vaccine against a related but not exactly the same strain of flu in pigs made the pigs get sicker; and that the only dogs that got really sick were those that were already in poor health. It's true that the vaccination doesn't protect total- ly. But it does make the dogs who get flu less sick and sick for less time. One of the dogs in the Rindi
score of 4.2 compared to the placebo group with a mean score of 20.2. None of the H3N2 vaccinated dogs died, compared to 21% of the placebo vaccinat- ed dogs.) 2) Why not just give one shot rather than two? MS: With any inactivated vaccine you need two doses to get full protection. The first dose will give some protective response, but it mainly primes the immune system to recognize the virus and prepare to fight it. The second dose, given two to four weeks later, ramps up the protection and activates immune memory cell responses. The vaccine does not really
T he allegation that the only dogs that contracted flu were in poor health caused some explo- sive arguments online."Just feed them immuno-boosters and a good diet," some people said. Gaudet feeds her dogs a plethora of vita- mins and immuno-boosters on top of a healthy diet; it didn't help her dogs avoid infection.
Gaudet's van had in fact received its first flu vaccina- tion, and while that dog was also affected, he was not sick as long or as seriously as the others. The allegation that the only dogs that contracted flu were in poor health caused some explosive arguments online. "Just feed them immuno-boosters and a good diet," some people said. Gaudet feeds her dogs a plethora of vitamins and immuno-boosters on top of a healthy diet; it didn't help her dogs avoid infection. Many questions remain about the vaccination, so I
protect until two weeks after the second vaccina- tion. 3) Why two weeks later? MS: The two to four week booster is a general rule for vaccines to allow the immune system to get ramped up. I would space the shots two weeks apart since in this case we want immunity as quickly as possible. You could proba- bly go six to eight weeks before you'd have to start over. 4) What about the
yearly booster? MS: The flu vaccine, like many res- piratory vaccines, doesn't seem to last as long as some other vaccines. The annual booster is just one shot. 5) What about puppies? MS: The vaccine can be given to puppies as young as 7 weeks of age. It should be given at the same time as the other puppy vaccinations. If you cannot do so, wait at least two weeks. Giving a vaccination earlier than two weeks often inhibits the second vaccine. The vaccine is the same amount in puppies versus adults, small versus large, as the immune system is not dose dependent. 6) What about breeding dogs? MS: There are no known contraindications for breeding animals, but as with most vaccines, the flu vaccine has not been specifically tested in them. It's a killed virus so no chance of replication. It's possible that a pregnant or lactating dam could be immunosuppressed so might not mount the optimal response. But the alter- native would be to leave her unvaccinated through pregnancy and lactation and then have to wait for the two vaccinations then an additional two weeks-- that's about five months of being unprotected! We advise to give it before breeding. With males, there's no evidence it affects sperm quality, but as with any vaccine, it could cause a transient fever which could
spoke with Madeleine Stahl, DVM, Associate Director of Scientific Marketing Affairs at Merck Pharmaceutical company. Here are my questions and her answers: 1) Should a "conditional license" be a cause for concern? MS: The USDA grants conditional licenses for emerging diseases and emergency situa- tions to get vaccine out as quickly as possible. The vaccine must be shown to be safe and have a reason- able expectation of efficacy. In the case of the H3N2 and bivalent vaccines, they've already moved on to full license as they were created by simply substitut- ing the N2 virus for the N8. We had already present- ed efficacy data at veterinary conferences for the N2 vaccine. Note that when the N8 vaccine first came out it was also under a conditional license, but it's since been given to more than 7 million dogs safely. (Note: I've seen the Abstracts and Technical Bulletins for these studies. Briefly, H3N2 vaccinated versus placebo vaccinated puppies were exposed to H3N2 virus about a month after vaccination. All dogs were scored using a point scale for depression, coughing, sneezing, dyspnea, nasal discharge, and fever. Dogs that received the vaccination had a mean
134 • S how S ight M agazine , A ugust 2017
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