From:
"Tressie"
Date: 2011-06-18 09:33:10 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Distemper vaccine ??
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Some preliminary facts are known about distemper vaccinations and reactions, as well as, effectiveness. Titer levels appear to be the key to determining whether ferrets have acquired immunity following vaccinations.
There is a small percentage of ferrets who never show adequate titer levels despite having been vaccinated. It is not known whether this means they will never have immunity or whether they are immune but for some reason titer levels don't come up? The only way to test that for certain would be to expose them to distemper, which in today's better enlightened scientific community is a huge NO-NO. Thankfully!! In another era that is exactly what would have been done and ferrets would have been 'sacrificed' for the benefit of scientific knowledge.
Given all the input and individuals' experiences, it seems to me that the best approach would be to have titer levels checked for ferrets with an unknown vaccination history. And then to vaccinate accordingly. When asked, this is what I recommend.
However, that is the ideal. The reality is that it is neither practical nor affordable for shelters/rescues to do that. And we know that the average uninformed ferret owner will most certainly not pursue that route.
What we can hope as a ferret community is that once the results from Dr. Heller's Mongo Memorial Distemper Titer study are published, that clinical practice will change and checking for titer levels will become routine and affordable.
Thank you sincerely to all (i.e. veterinarians, owners and shelter workers) for sharing your valuable thoughts and experiences on this very important topic.
Tressie
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