From:
Shirley Hewett
Date: 2001-12-25 18:30:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Canine Distemper
One other point about immunising against canine distemper is
that the greater the pool of unimmunised animals, the greater
the havoc wreaked by the introduction of the disease because
it will naturally spread more quickly.
Depending on the circumstances, it is better for the whole
local population of susceptible animals to be kept up with
their immunisations, despite the non-presence of the disease,
to prevent an outbreak. After all, we do live in a very
mobile society.
As an example, in the Western Australian wheatbelt, after a
few years of no distemper, farmers tend not to immunise their
dogs. After all, they never leave the farm, right? All it
takes is an infected dog to urinate on the wheel of a
travelling salesman's car as he is leaving for the next
property and it is found that the disease spreads like wild
fire.
Similarly with ferrets, the greater the number that are
immunised, the less chance of an outbreak, so we owe it to the
whole ferret community to keep up with the shots unless there
are health reasons not to.
Love & Dooks,
Shirley.