Quote:
Originally Posted by gemy  An extract from your first link: highlights mine
The story, however, does not end there. [COLOR="Red"]I[COLOR="Yellow"]n the case of the three major and life threatening diseases vaccinated for in the canine core DHPP vaccine (distemper, parvo, and hepatitis), antibody titer does seem to correlate well with adequate protection against disease[/COLOR].[/COLOR] Therefore, if owners wish to rely on titers to decide on whether or not their dog needs to be vaccinated, if they do not mind the increased expense of titer testing rather than just vaccinating, I support that decision. Unfortunately, for rabies and the non-core vaccines, titers not proven even nearly as reliable in determining individual disease protection. This is why in the case of rabies, any jurisdiction I am aware of will not accept proof of protective rabies antibodies as an alternative to a rabies vaccine for dogs and cats. T[COLOR="Yellow"]hus in the case of canine non-core vaccines and rabies, I do not advise reliance on antibody titer testing…nor is it even legal to do so for rabies anyway.[/COLOR]
Well in order to import a dog to England you MUST TITER TEST for Rabies - a current Rabies certificate is not enough - something called an EXPORT TITER must be done. The cost is approx $500 Cdn. last time I checked. So Englands Import Authority relies upon Rabies Titers to prove immunity to Rabies.... As a sidebar a friend of mine got the Titering done as she wanted to bring her dog to England - he did not PASS the Titer test - another Rabies vaccine needed to be administered. She would never have known he was not protected as he was apparently resistant to the vaccine if she had not had to Titer to import her dog to England. The point is if RAbies titering is not indicative of protection why does England insist upon it for dog imports???
Also in the second link the author explains that DHPP titer testing is strongly correlated to immunity being present for these diseases - Rabies not so much and some other diseases which are non core vaccines such as LYMES |
Thanks for attempting to clarify, Gemy. Appreciated. My vet, however, is Canadian and told me about rabies titre testing requirements as she and her dogs are classed as 'high risk'. However, she went into the science about why she thought they were ineffective but habitual 'safe guarding' or 'in case' which is a hard cycle to break, hence, the reason we all over vaccinate.
So, I do know where you're coming from but the science does not support titre testing past a few weeks/months of puppy inoculations. There are 2 strains of immunity, titres check one which is not valid after a certain point or too simplistic in isolation to confirm immunity.
I can get you some stuff to read, as I know you are very scientifically inclined, but for others, I would suggest speaking to the vet before relying on titre testing and the reasons behind them etc.