Rabies Vaccines Debated
Pets could get shots every three years 

By Leigh Hopper, Houston Chronicle Medical Writer
Houston Chronicle - June 4, 2002
 
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Pet owners, public health experts and veterinarians will debate tonight whether the state should make a major change in its rabies control strategy - requiring vaccinations at three-year intervals instead of once
a year.  The public meeting is part of a routine review of state health rules, but it comes at a time when experts in animal and human health are hotly debating the proper intervals for pet vaccines.  The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the Hickey Auditorium at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center, 1515 Holcombe.
 

Texas is one of only five states still requiring that dogs and cats get rabies shots every year, even though research shows vaccines for rabies and other important diseases are effective for at least three years.
Many veterinarians believe dogs and cats don't need repeated shots for distemper, parvo or rabies, just as humans don't need a measles shot every year.   In addition, frequent pet vaccines have been strongly linked to a rare, fatal cancer in cats, and associated with a deadly blood disorder in dogs.
 

Pet owner Gretchen Krueger of Stafford plans to submit her opinion, arguing in favor of a triennial schedule. Krueger owned two cats that developed the vaccine-linked cancer, feline fibrosarcoma.  One cat lost a leg and eventually died of side effects from radiation.  The other pet is still recuperating from treatment.

"I feel strongly we need to revisit (rabies shot requirements). We take this seriously," Krueger said. "If this were happening to humans, and children were coming up with these terrible cancers, there would be a
great and huge outcry."

Rabies is the only pet vaccine required by law.  That's because pets serve as an easy link between people and animals in the wild.  Texans are particularly at risk because of their proximity to Mexico, where canine rabies is rampant in coyotes.  Rabies in humans is fatal unless a person gets a series of shots immediately after exposure to an infected animal.
 

"The question isn't whether dogs and cats should be vaccinated.  The question is how frequently," said Jane Mahlow, a veterinarian and director of the Texas Department of Health's program to prevent diseases transmitted from animals to humans.  "We need to determine what frequency adequately and reasonably protects the public."

Dogs now receive a vaccine that is labeled and marketed as effective for three years, while cats may be given a one-year or three-year vaccine.  The three-year vaccine, Mahlow said, offers pet owners leeway if they forget to take their pets in for annual booster shots.
 

Some believe the current rules unfairly target responsible pet owners while doing nothing to address the vast numbers of never-vaccinated dogs and cats.  According to the Health Department, one-third of the 5.9
million dogs and 6.6 million cats in Texas are vaccinated.
 

"That is your rabies reservoir right there," Mahlow said.  "It's those irresponsible pet owners who don't vaccinate at all creating the public health problem."
 

The meeting in Houston is the ninth and last in a statewide series.  Other meetings have been held in Harlingen, San Antonio, College Station, Amarillo, Tyler, Midland, Arlington and El Paso.  Mahlow said the meetings have been "very polarized."
 

She said some people say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and don't want to tinker with the rabies control program.  In the 1990s, Texas had four human rabies cases, two of them bat strains and two canine strains.  "Others say, `The science is out there.  Why are we vaccinating every year?' " Mahlow said.
 

Most veterinary schools teach administering most vaccines every three years.  However, extended shot schedules have not been widely embraced by veterinarians in private practice.  Vets are reluctant to go against manufacturers' recommendations, and they worry that pet owners won't bring in their animals for yearly exams if annual vaccinations aren't required.
 

Steve Taylor, a veterinarian at Lexington Boulevard Animal Hospital in Sugar Land, thinks a three-year rabies schedule will encourage more vets and pet owners to get other shots at three-year intervals.  Taylor adopted a three-year schedule for shots other than rabies after extensive discussion at his practice.  He said the issue is not black and white.  On one hand, limiting a pet's exposure to shots seems prudent; on
the other hand, no one knows how well diseases will be controlled if all pets go to triennial shot schedules.
 

Mahlow's department will compile results from the meetings and other research and make a recommendation to the Texas Board of Health.  She said the rule could be changed by next year.