Intake Vaccinations Reduced Signs of Canine Respiratory Disease During an Outbreak at an Animal Shelter

Abstract

Animal shelters provide an ideal environment for the spread of disease. Dogs are often housed in close quarters with others of unknown vaccine histories, and experience high levels of sustained stress. As a result, Canine Infection Respiratory Disease (CIRD) is often prevalent and difficult to control. The aims of this study were to (1) identify specific pathogens responsible for CIRD in a city shelter in West Texas, USA, and (2) determine whether intake vaccinations decrease proportion of dogs exhibiting signs of CIRD even during an outbreak. A laboratory analysis of conjunctival, pharyngeal, and nasal swabs (n = 15 dogs) and fecal samples (n = 6 kennels) showed prevalence of various CIRD pathogens (e.g., canine adenovirus-2, canine parainfluenza virus, canine distemper virus). All fifteen dogs tested positive for at least one pathogen, with the most prevalent pathogen being Canine Distemper Virus (CDV; n = 12). All of the kennels (n=6) tested positive for Canine Distemper Virus. Health data on dogs (n = 1,258) over the age of 6 weeks were assessed from May to August 2017. Beginning in July, both stray and owner-surrendered dogs were vaccinated with Nobivac® Canine 1-DAPPv 5 Way and Nobivac® Intra-Trac® 3 upon intake, which differed from the previous policy. For each day in the study, we calculated the proportion of dogs in each nasal discharge category, the proportion of dogs observed coughing, and the mean fecal score across all dogs. We conducted a linear regression between the proportion of the shelter vaccinated and the proportion of dogs coughing. At the beginning of the vaccination phase, ~25% of the dogs were coughing. However, as the proportion of the dogs vaccinated increased, the proportion of dogs coughing decreased. There was a significant decrease of 7% of the proportion of dogs coughing when vaccination was at least at 90% compared to when it was <90%. These data suggest that the shelter in this study was experiencing a CIRD outbreak, with CDV being primary pathogen, and that it is possible to substantially reduce illness by implementing a vaccination on intake protocol. The current study provides support for the importance of vaccination in animal shelter welfare.

Antibody seroprevalence against canine distemper virus, parvovirus, and adenovirus in dogs from a brazilian animal shelter

“…It is also of utmost importance that vaccination protocols be followed through, according to the specific guidelines published for animal shelters (Decaro et al, 2020), to ensure a "herd effect"-i.e., to guarantee susceptible members of a certain population an indirect protection against a pathogen through immune members, as the risk of exposure to an infected individual decreases. This effect can be determined by the strength of previous infection transmission and recovery, as well as by herd immunity, that is, the proportion of immune individuals in each population (John and Samuel, 2000;Andrukonis et al, 2021). In our study, although a higher percentage of dogs with protective antibody levels against the studied pathogens were admitted to the shelter, the seroprevalence for CDV and CAV was insufficient to ensure a herd effect.…”

Genetic analysis of Canine adenovirus type 2 strains circulating in Turkey from past to present

“…Therefore, the CAV-2 vaccine is preferred for cross-protection and has the advantage that it does not cause side effects like CAV-1. The positive effect of the vaccine has been described elsewhere (Abdelmagid et al 2004;Barthold et al 2011;Andrukonis et al 2021). In Turkey, a programmed vaccination against adenoviral infections is not carried out and imported vaccines are made at the request of animal owners in private clinics.…”

2024 guidelines for the vaccination of dogs and cats – compiled by the Vaccination Guidelines Group (VGG) of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)

“…The intranasal and oral vaccines only need to be administered once at intake as they are not inactivated by maternal antibody and confer a 13‐month DOI (Jacobs et al., 2005; Scott‐Garrard et al., 2020). Vaccination of all shelter dogs on admission with a parenteral vaccine containing modified‐live CDV, CAV‐2 and CPiV coupled with the intranasal modified‐live B. bronchiseptica and CPiV vaccine is associated with reduced occurrence of respiratory disease (Andrukonis et al., 2021).…”