www.aht.org.uk

sorry I havent mastered links but if you go to the news section on the animal health trust website there is the results of a recent vaccination survey.

Aileen

There seems to be a lot of conflicting advice on this matter - its hard to know which advice to follow :rolleyes:

Hi lel, there IS a lot of conflicting advice but imo that is all the more reason to look at properly designed studies with a good number of subjects rather than listen to masses of anecdotal scare stories.

The news item can be read here and I for one would be interested to hear what views the "anti-vaccine" people have of it.

Hi Jas, I don't booster at all so would be classed as "anti-vaccine" :)  In my view I'm not sure that this study makes the issue any clearer or gives any backing to the safety of vaccines. Figures can can be manipulated or interpreted to suit. For instance these 2 statements together could be said to demonstrate overwelming evidence NOT to vaccinate ...

>The study population consisted of dogs that had used the services of a veterinary practice within the previous 12 months.

>1% (42) were unvaccinated and 1% (42) had their vaccination status recorded as unknown.

The study doesn't say whether the dogs visiting the vets in the 12 month period were there because they were ill or purely for vaccination. If they were all poorly then you could say "98-99% of poorly dogs are vaccinated ones!" 

The study is supposed to produce

>" clearest evidence yet that routine vaccination of dogs in the UK does not increase frequency of illness".

That doesn't prove that vaccines are safe. If at least 98% of dogs are vaccinated the general level illness could be much higher anyway than if no dogs were vaccinated.

>"The survey found that older dogs in general exhibit more signs of illness, including chronic lameness, stiffness and bad breath, and that frequency of these signs increases continuously with age". 

Fair enough, but older dogs have also had increasing numbers of boosters as the years go by. I would rather see a study taking equal numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated dogs and comparing them for general health and for frequency of vet treatment throughout their life.

Kath.