Antibody titre (blood) testing is now available for major viral diseases in dogs. We recognise that some clients may prefer to check on their pets disease antibody status, before vaccination for distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus.
The World Veterinary Vaccine Guideline Group has recommended a three year interval for the core viral diseases vaccinations from 12-15 months for all dogs to ensure adequate coverage. They recognise that a reasonable percentage of dogs will still have protective antibody levels for perhaps many years .
Conversely, they also recognise the rare phenomenon of vaccine “non-responders”, where around one in 500-1000 dogs will not produce antibody to vaccination no matter how frequently it may be given. These dogs once recognised can then possibly be managed by protective avoidance of high risk situations.
A blood test is an effective way to gauge the presence (or not!) of protective antibody levels; and this is called “titre testing”. Some clients may have had experiences of vaccination reactions in the past, ranging from a simple skin swelling at the injection site, to a slight fever, or even so-called autoimmune blood and joint diseases, which although rare can be very debilitating.
Please call us if you prefer to have canine titre testing performed, as it approximates the cost of vaccination. At this stage, testing of cats is not recommended as flu virus immunity in this species is not just dependent on antibody, but also cell-mediated and topical immunity.
