The Rabies Challenge Fund is pleased to announce that the canine rabies challenge studies have begun!!!  Permission is granted to post and cross-post the text of our press release below. 

Regards,  Kris L. Christine
Founder, Co-Trustee
The Rabies Challenge Fund
http://www.RabiesChallengeFund.org

One of the most important vaccine research studies in veterinary medicine is underway at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.  Dr. Ronald Schultz, a leading authority on veterinary vaccines and Chair of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences, has begun concurrent 5 and 7 year challenge studies to determine the long-term duration of immunity of the canine rabies vaccine, with the goal of extending the state-mandated interval for boosters.  These will be the first long-term challenge studies on the canine rabies vaccine to be published in the United States.

Dr. Schultz comments that: "We are all very excited to start this study that will hopefully demonstrate that rabies vaccines can provide a minimum of 7 years of immunity."

This research is being financed by The Rabies Challenge Fund, a charitable trust founded by pet vaccine disclosure advocate Kris L. Christine of Maine, who serves as Co-Trustee with world-renowned veterinary research scientist and practicing clinician, Dr. W. Jean Dodds of Hemopet in California.  The Rabies Challenge Fund recently met its goal of $177,000 to fund the studies’ first year budget with contributions from dog owners, canine groups, trainers, veterinarians, and small businesses.  Annual budget goals of $150,000 for the studies must be met in the future.

Dr. Jean Dodds, DVM states: "This is the first time in my 43 years of involvement in veterinary issues that what started as a grass-roots effort to change an outmoded regulation affecting animals will be addressed scientifically by an acknowledged expert to benefit all canines in the future."

Scientific data published in 1992 by Michel Aubert and his research team demonstrated that dogs were immune to a rabies challenge 5 years after vaccination, while Dr. Schultz’s serological studies documented antibody titer counts at levels known to confer immunity to rabies 7 years post-vaccination.   This data strongly suggests that state laws requiring annual or triennial rabies boosters for dogs are redundant.  Because the rabies vaccine is the most potent of the veterinary vaccines and associated with significant adverse reactions, it should not be given more often than is necessary to maintain immunity.  Adverse reactions such autoimmune diseases affecting the thyroid, joints, blood, eyes, skin, kidney, liver, bowel and central nervous system; anaphylactic shock; aggression; seizures; epilepsy; and fibrosarcomas at injection sites are linked to rabies vaccinations.

Study co-trustee Kris Christine adds: “Because the USDA does not require vaccine manufacturers to provide long-term duration of immunity studies documenting maximum effectiveness when licensing their products, concerned dog owners have contributed the money to fund this research themselves.  We want to ensure that rabies immunization laws are based upon independent, long-term scientific data.” 

More information and regular updates on The Rabies Challenge Fund and the concurrent 5 and 7 year challenge studies it is financing can be found at the fund’s website designed by volunteer Andrea Brin at:  www.RabiesChallengeFund.org.

The American Animal Hospital Association in March released a new edition of its vaccine guidelines for dogs.

The 2006 AAHA Canine Vaccine Guidelines include detailed recommendations on the use of available vaccines, which are classified as core, noncore, or not recommended. Revised sections of the document include those addressing serologic testing, vaccine adverse events, the vaccine licensing process, and the medical and legal implications of vaccine medicine.

The 28-page document contains a new section of guidelines that address vaccination of dogs entering or residing in animal shelter environments. Some of the core vaccination recommendations for shelter environments are slightly more aggressive than the guidelines presented for general veterinary practice.

Other new content covered in the document includes a section highlighting the science of vaccine development. The document also deals with vaccines granted a conditional license by the Department of Agriculture's Center for Veterinary Biologics. These include rattlesnake and periodontal disease vaccines.

The 2006 AAHA Canine Vaccine Guidelines are based on a combination of published and unpublished scientific studies, expert opinion, and personal experience. The guidelines include a number of new citations that enhance and enforce the science on which the guidelines are based. The guidelines are intended to educate and inform the profession and help veterinarians make vaccine recommendations for individual dogs or, in the case of a shelter, a population of dogs.

The guidelines are not intended to be an AAHA standard of care, however.

The AAHA released its first set of canine vaccination guidelines in 2003. The AAHA Canine Vaccine Task Force reconvened in 2005 to re-examine and revise the guidelines to reflect changes in areas of canine vaccines. Factors that contributed to the updating of the guidelines include the increase in documented duration-of-immunity studies, industry support of extended revaccination intervals, and developing areas of shelter medicine.

"To stay abreast of the changing landscape of vaccinations, it's important for companion animal practitioners to review the updated guidelines," said AAHA immediate past president, Dr. Daniel Aja. "We have gained new knowledge over the past three years, especially in the field of duration-of-immunity studies and shelter medicine. These important updates are well-referenced and are reflected in the 2006 edition of our guidelines."

The 2006 AAHA Canine Vaccine Guidelines are available in their entirety on the AAHA Web site, www.aahanet.org. The executive summary of the guidelines is published in the March/April 2006 issues of Trends magazine and the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association.

We follow Dr. Jean Dodds' Minimal Vaccine Use Vaccination Protocol. 

  $20,000 MATCHING PLEDGE

Two anonymous donors have generously pledged to match all donations of $100 or more to The Rabies Challenge Fund up to $20,000 from May 1^st through November 1^st.  The Fund is more than halfway towards reaching its immediate goal of $177,000 to cover the two concurrent challenge studies’ first year expenses so the research can begin. 

The donors state that, “We are unabashed dog lovers and will do anything in our power to promote their health, longevity and overall well-being. That is the reason we have established a $20,000 matching gift program for the Rabies Challenge Fund. If you believe, as we do and as W. Jean Dodds, DVM, has stated, that “Rabies is the vaccine most associated with adverse reactions because it’s so potent”, then please support this initiative, particularly now so that your $100.00 or more donation will be doubled.”

The Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exemption organization founded by pet vaccine disclosure advocate Kris L. Christine of Maine in 2005 to finance 5 and 7 year long-term duration of immunity challenge studies on the canine rabies vaccine.  Two world-renowned giants of veterinary vaccine research -- Dr. W. Jean Dodds of Hemopet and Co-Trustee of The Rabies Challenge Fund and Dr. Ronald Schultz of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine -- have volunteered their time to ensure this important research is conducted in the United States.  The vaccine studies will be performed by Dr. Schultz at the University of Wisconsin according to USDA vaccine licensing requirements.

“This matching pledge offers a marvelous opportunity to reach our goal soon and begin the study!” Dr. Dodds stated.

The concurrent vaccine studies will determine the duration of immunity conveyed by the canine rabies vaccine, with the goal of extending the state-mandated interval for boosters to 5, and then to 7 years.  Scientific data suggest that vaccinating dogs against rabies every three years, as most states require, is unnecessary. Studies have shown the duration of protective immunity as measured by serum antibody titers against rabies virus to persist up to seven years post-vaccination, and results of a 1992 French challenge study led by Michel Aubert demonstrated dogs were immune to rabies five years after vaccination.  Researchers believe the rabies vaccine can cause adverse reactions in animals and concur that it should not be given more often than is necessary to maintain immunity.  Adverse reactions to rabies vaccination can include autoimmune diseases affecting the thyroid, joints, blood, eyes, skin, kidney, liver, bowel and central nervous system; anaphylactic shock; aggression; seizures; epilepsy; and fibrosarcomas at injection sites.

Fund founder and Co-Trustee, Kris Christine, noted that, "This generous $20,000 matching pledge presents pet owners with a wonderful opportunity to double their contributions of $100 or more to help get the studies underway as soon as possible. The USDA does not require manufacturers to conduct long-term duration of immunity studies on canine vaccines, so rabies immunization laws reflect the minimum, not the maximum time for which vaccination confers immunity. Vaccine manufacturers lack the financial incentives to conduct this research, thus it is up to concerned pet owners to fund these studies to determine whether state laws require their dogs to be overvaccinated against rabies as current scientific data indicates."

More information on The Rabies Challenge Fund and the concurrent 5 and 7 year challenge studies it will finance can be found at the fund’s website designed by volunteer Andrea Brin at:  www.RabiesChallengeFund.org.  To hear Animal Talk Naturally’s April 25^th 2007 interview with Dr. W. Jean Dodds and Kris L. Christine The Vaccine Challenge, click on http://www.animaltalknaturally.com:80/2007/05/01/the-vaccine-challenge-show-91/ .

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