[Wylie's Mom]

{{{ This is from Dogs Naturally Magazine. This is an EXCELLENT article/guide - I wish it was required reading for ALL dog owners! It may appear long, but it is actually very easy to read and digest. }}}

The Essential Guide To Canine Vaccines

Introduction

Modern veterinary medicine is becoming increasingly technologically advanced. Today's vets have much more sophisticated tools at their disposal than they did ten or twenty years ago. But as veterinary medicine progresses, one important aspect of veterinary medicine is being overlooked: immunology.

Veterinary immunologist, Dr Ronald Schultz PhD Dipl ACVIM, has addressed this gaping hole in veterinary medicine:

“Our new grads don’t know a heck of a lot more about vaccines than our older grads. And I’ve figured out why this is. They know a lot more about basic immunology, but they don’t know about vaccinology and the two are not the same….Also, they’re taught by people generally that know nothing about vaccinology. Now, when do they get their vaccine training? During their fourth year. And who’s giving that? The veterinarians that know how to give vaccines, that still don’t know about vaccinology. So we haven’t gone very far from where we were ten years ago or twenty years ago with regard to training veterinarians about vaccines.

Today’s vets are stuck in a vaccination schedule that is dated and scientifically unproven. They are slow to adapt to the growing body of research showing that vaccines don’t need to be given as often as once though and that there are very real dangers associated with over-vaccination.”

In the next section, we'll take a look at how the immune system can protect the body for a lifetime.

The Immune System - An Overview

Before discussing vaccination, it's important to have a fundamental understanding of the immune system.

Viruses like Parvovirus and Distemper are tiny organisms that are unable to reproduce on their own. They need a host cell to do this and they use cells in your dog's body to produce new viruses that infect even more cells. Often, the host cell is destroyed in the process.

Although it's virtually impossible for viruses to enter the body through the skin, they can make their way into the body through the eyes, nose and mouth. There is a sticky mucus in these openings, as well as tiny hairs called cilia in the respiratory tract that attack most foreign invaders. However some viruses can make it past these primary defenses.

When foreign intruders like bacteria or viruses enter the body, a part of the immune system quickly reacts and cells arrive at the site of the invasion. This triggers inflammation, which in turn attracts proteins that circulate in the blood. These proteins are capable of reacting directly with the antigen - the virus molecules that the body recognizes as foreign substances - and help immune cells find and "eat" the foreign invaders.

Lymphocytes: T Cells and B Cells

White blood cells called lymphocytes are produced in bone marrow but migrate to the lymphatic system, a transportation system that courses through the entire body and feeds other parts of the lymphatic system (the lymph nodes, spleen and thymus). The lymphatic system feeds the body's cells, filters out dead cells and invades organisms like viruses and bacteria.

The surface of each lymphatic cell carries receptors that are capable of recognizing foreign substances. The lymphatic cells travel throughout the body, continuously searching for antigens.

T Cells

T cells come in two different types: helper cells and killer cells.

When specialized proteins eat foreign invaders, they then travel to the nearest lymph node. This in turn activates helper T cells, which begin to divide and produce proteins that activate B and killer T cells. The killer T cells specialize in attacking cells of the body that are infected with viruses. They use their specialized receptors to search every cell in the body for traces of antigen. If a cell is infected, it is swiftly killed.

B Cells

B cells also search for antigens in the body. When they find them, they connect to the antigen and use proteins produced by helper T cells to become fully activated. When this happens, the B cell will divide, creating two new cell types: plasma cells and B memory cells.

The Plasma Cell produces special proteins, called antibodies, that are released from the plasma cell so they can seek out foreign intruders and help destroy them. Plasma cells can release tens of thousands of antibodies per second.

When antibodies find an antigen, they neutralize toxins, incapacitate the virus and help eater cells called macrophages destroy the invader.

The Memory Cells are the second type of B cells. These cells have a long life span and are capable of "remembering" specific antigens and viruses. T cells can also produce longer-lived memory cells. The second time a virus tries to invade the body, B and T memory cells help the immune system to activate much quicker and the invaders are wiped out before the dog feels any symptoms. The dog now has permanent immunity against the invader.

In the next lesson, we’ll take a look at how vaccines create immunity.

How Vaccines Work

Vaccines contain either killed or live organisms that have been made less virulent. This process, called attenuation, allows vaccine manufacturers to add only a small amount of virus to the vaccine. To enhance the body's response to the small amount of virus, powerful immune stimulating substances such as aluminum and squalene are added to the vaccine. These are called adjuvants.

The combination of the attenuated virus and the adjuvants triggers an immune response by the body. This is similar to what would happen with natural infections - except there are a number of ways vaccination differs from natural immunity:

Vaccines contain dangerous chemicals that have a toxic effect on the body.
The route of entry is different than that of a naturally occurring disease. Most natural diseases would enter the body through the mouth or nasal cavity, not the skin.
There is more than one disease present in most vaccines (typically from three to seven), whereas a dog would never naturally contract three or more diseases at the same time.

In the next section, we'll look at why this creates a problem.