Who does your dog’s rabies vaccine protect?
Easy answer: your furbaby
Tricky answer: you AND your community
Extra tricky answer: your ecosystem
Yup, that’s right! We have arrived in the realm of ecology,
by way of your local vet’s office. But let’s back up a second and ask our
question again in context. Let’s play out a little scenario: your local
friendly veterinary assistant called you, reminding you that your beloved
companion is overdue for vaccines. They make a point of saying “And that
includes the rabies vaccine, which is especially important!” You’re left
wondering – why do they make such a big deal out of it? Rabies is supposed to
be really rare, right? Well, as you see above, the answer is that the rabies
vaccine protects a lot. It is our one and only “ace in the hole” against a
nearly always fatal disease.
Most people are aware that rabies is an extremely dangerous
infectious disease to which our beloved pets are susceptible. Most people also
know that people can get rabies; fewer are aware that all mammals are
susceptible. Every once in a very great while a true rabies infection survival
story is reported.
This lucky handful of humans usually underwent weeks or months of intensive and
expensive care. Most of the time,
though, a rabies-infected animal (or human) dies a painful and terrifying death. This is the
first answer to the question of why it is so important to prevent infection in
the first place: the rabies vaccine protects your furbaby from a particularly
unpleasant death.
To get to our second answer, a bit of history. Rabies was at
one time a serious and relatively common problem in the USA, with dangerous
outbreaks occurring since before the Declaration of Independence up to the
early 1900s. Many people—and many more dogs—died. Happily this is no longer the
case. In the 1940s a tremendous effort involving education and vaccination began
to control the disease in dogs. By vaccinating dogs, people were protected.
Over time, the use of vaccines became recommended for other pets as well. Massive
vaccination and animal control campaigns have enabled several countries to eradicate
rabies within their borders. In those countries rabies is no longer a concern –
but the United States continues the battle against rabies. We still need the
help of every pet owner to maintain our control over the disease. That is why vaccinating your dog protects you
and your community.
And, now, on to the ecosystem. Rabies is present among
various wild animal populations. Skunks, foxes, bats, raccoons, and opossums—to
name a few species—are all susceptible to infection. However, it is much more
challenging to vaccinate wild animals than domestic ones. The good news is that
scientists are working hard to find effective ways of inoculating these
animals. Meanwhile, our best line of defense for those poor, unvaccinated wild
critters is to reduce the “circulation” of the virus as much as possible,
thereby minimizing the chances of infection among wild animals. We do this by
making more and more animals resistant to infection, which takes them out of
the circulation loop, so to speak. How do we do that? By vaccinating the easy
ones: pets.
So there you have it. The rabies vaccine: protecting you,
your pet, your community, and the ecosystem you live in—all with regular visits
to the vet and the occasional little needle poke! (The recommended frequency of
rabies vaccines varies among states.)
For more information on rabies in humans, see: http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/
For more information on the ecological dimension of disease click here
This blog was authored by:
Jeanne Coffin
Masters of Conservation Medicine
Tufts University
Asheville, NC
Masters of Conservation Medicine
Tufts University
Asheville, NC
We are proud to have her as an assistant at our hospital!
