If you want to protect your puppy against disease, you need to know not only how vaccination can save your puppy’s life,
but also how it be taken away by vaccinating too early, too often, and too much.
MY PUPPY NEEDS VACCINATING, WHAT DO I DO - READ MORE HERE
Dr Karen Becker and Dr Ronald Schultz Interview
Dr Schultz summarizes his 40 years of research with the following:
“Only one dose of the modified-live canine ‘core’ vaccine (against CDV, CAV-2 and CPV-2) when administered at 16 weeks or older, will provide long lasting (many years to a lifetime) immunity in a very high percentage of animals.”
When puppies are very young, they are protected from disease by drinking their mother’s first milk, 'colostrum'. This rich milk contains maternal antibodies against infectious disease, which the mother passes down to her puppies.
The puppy’s immune system is not fully mature, or active, until he/she is around six months of age, and when a puppy with a reasonable amount of maternal antibodies is vaccinated, the maternal antibodies will essentially inactivate the vaccine, just as they would a real virus.
The maternal antibodies for distemper are usually low enough for vaccination to be effective at 8 and 9 weeks of age. However, with Parvovirus, the maternal antibodies last a lot longer in most puppies, so vaccinating at 8 or 9 weeks wouldn’t be all that effective.
In a study performed by Vanguard, it was found that a combination vaccine (which typically contains parvovirus, distemper and one to five other antigens), given to six week old puppies had only a 52% chance of protecting them against parvo.
At nine weeks of age, 88% of the puppies in the study showed a response to the vaccine. At 12 weeks, 100% of the puppies were protected. Some vaccines will provide protection earlier or later. What this study shows is that vaccinating puppies under 12 weeks of age for parvo, and certainly under nine weeks of age, is a high risk – low reward approach.
Pfizer also performed an interesting field study in 1996 where they split vaccinated puppies into two groups.
Group A – received a single vaccination at 12 weeks
Group B – received a first vaccine between eight to 10 weeks and a second at 12 weeks.
When immunity was measured, 100% of the puppies vaccinated once at 12 weeks were protected whereas only 94% of the puppies in Group B were protected, despite receiving two vaccines as opposed to one.
Most vets also unnecessarily vaccinate once more at a year of age, and almost all vets vaccinate every year or three years after that although there is no scientific validity to this practice.
All material in this article and on the Collielife website is provided for your information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. The data from studies is accurate although Collielife acknowledges occasional differences in opinion and welcomes the exchange of different viewpoints. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions.
