Should we bother vaccinating puppies?

In Europe and the US, there are strict rules about vaccinating pet dogs against rabies. Dogs  cannot be legally transported across borders or sold without being vaccinated. The puppy trade has raised concerns because puppies are not usually vaccinated until they are around three months old. 

Likewise, in countries where rabies is endemic, puppies have not routinely been included in mass rabies vaccination programmes. This is because dogs under three months of age have not yet developed a proper immune system.

However, the average life-span of dogs in canine rabies endemic areas is three years or less; puppies can make up to 39% of a dog population in some areas (Davlin and Vonville 2012). This means that puppies can often miss out completely on vaccinations in their lifetimes. A vaccination campaign simply moves on to the next target area.

​It’s also worth bearing in mind that often a proportionally higher incidence of rabies is reported in dogs younger than 12 months of age in endemic regions (Abela-Ridder 2015)—most likely because of low vaccination rates. 

Puppies have little inhibition when it comes to biting, and it is natural for them to explore and play with their mouths (Landsberg et al. 2013). Of course, their bite is not as bad as an adult’s—but children are attracted to puppies, and sometimes just a nip or a lick on broken skin can be enough for transmission to occur.

A new study (Morters et al. 2015) shows that fears that vaccination does not work in puppies  are unfounded and should not be grounds for exempting puppies from mass dog vaccination programmes. The research uses data from trials in Gauteng Province, South Africa, and the Serengeti District, Tanzania, which show that puppies show no adverse effects from vaccination, and had a good immune response to a standard dose of high quality, inactivated rabies vaccine.

The new evidence adds extra weight to the existing international recommendations that all dogs, regardless of age, should be vaccinated in mass dog vaccination campaigns in canine rabies endemic areas (WHO 2013; Arechiga Ceballos et al. 2014).

Vaccinating puppies is a tricky business. No one likes to see puppies and their mothers distressed. Dogs and puppies with owners are more accessible than street dogs. Accessing puppies born to street dogs is not easy. So is it worth it?

The evidence is, at least, beginning to show that it is. Efforts to eliminate rabies may be compromised until we give puppies the same protection we give adult dogs.

References

Abela-Ridder, B. (2015). "Rabies: 100 per cent fatal, 100 per cent preventable." Vet Rec 177(6): 148-149.

Arechiga Ceballos, N., Karunaratna, D. & Aguilar Setien, A. (2014). "Control of canine rabies in developing countries: key features and animal welfare implications." Rev sci tech Off int Epiz 33(1): 311-321.

Davlin, S. L. & Vonville, H. M. (2012). "Canine rabies vaccination and domestic dog population characteristics in the developing world: a systematic review." Vaccine 30(24): 3492-3502.

Landsberg, G. M., Hunthausen, W. L. & Ackerman, L. J. (2013). Behavior Problems of the Dog & Cat 3rd edn., Saunders.

Morters, M. K., McNabb, S., Horton, D. L., Fooks, A. R., Schoeman, J. P., Whay, H. R., Wood, J. L. & Cleaveland, S. (2015). "Effective vaccination against rabies in puppies in rabies endemic regions." Vet Rec 177(6): 150.

WHO (2013). WHO Expert Consultation on Rabies, Second report. WHO Technical Report Series 982. Geneva, World Health Organization.