It’s no surprise to many disgruntled pet owners that many veterinary clinics rely on revenue from vaccines. Happily for the dogs, many vets have replaced vaccinations with titer testing. The problem with this is twofold: one, they are replacing yearly or triennial vaccination with yearly or triennial titer testing, and two, titers are expensive.
Once a dog has a positive titer, he is considered protected for life. This means he no longer requires more vaccinations (most of the core vaccines have been shown to protect dogs for 7 to 15 years). If the dog doesn’t require any other vaccinations, then why are the titers being repeated?
“The patient receives no benefit and may be placed at serious risk when an unnecessary vaccine is given” says Dr. Ronald Schultz. ”Few or no scientific studies have demonstrated a need for cats or dogs to be revaccinated.” Clearly, not only repeating a vaccination, but repeating a titer is unnecessary. Although repeated vaccinations place your pet at risk, repeated titers place your pocketbook at risk.
The fee for titer testing varies from region to region and lab to lab however the going rate for a distemper/parvovirus titer is from $40 to $60 and the rabies titer will average about $120 (plus the cost of an office visit). Fortunately, there is a cheaper alternative to titer testing.
Last year, Biogal rolled out its Vaccicheck in the US. Synbiotics also has their TiterCHEK test, which they recently sold to Pfizer. Both tests measure parvovirus and distemper and the Vaccicheck also measures adenovirus. Vaccicheck also has a test for cats. Whereas titers traditionally had to be sent out to labs for analysis, these two tests are performed in-house, greatly reducing costs.
If your dog requires repeated titers for his daycare, boarding kennel or training club, these two tests are a much cheaper alternative to traditional titer testing. Both tests are easy to use and provide an answer (protection or not) within 20 – 30 minutes. Both tests have been validated independently and correlated with gold standard tests by a number of diagnostic laboratories.
If your vet isn’t aware of these tests, urge him to start using them in place of titers. Not only will they be cheaper for you, they may save another dog from over-vaccination. Many pet owners (and vets) opt out of titers because of the cost, but at a price tag of around $20, these in-house tests are cheaper than vaccinating. Do your part in the fight against over-vaccination and inform your vet of these great new alternatives. For more information on Vaccicheck, visit www.vaccicheck.com
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I was just reading this thread about in house titer tests. Are these tests available in Canada yet?
I believe they are about three or four months away yet. You can contact Vaccicheck for more information.
We are in GTA/Toronto area in Ontario, Canada
I have contacted the COMPANY at the vacci check web link, and they do not ship to Canada
Do you know how we can get it here in Canada ? Any ideas would be GREAT !!! : )
Or is there some thing I can give to my DVM to see if they can order it for us ?
Cheers
It is still in the approval stages and should be available in a couple of months. Synbiotics also has a similar test available although I’m not certain if it is available in Canada. I have been in communication with Biogal and VacciCheck should be approved soon.
Thank you for checking this out. I’m finding the answers quite confusing too. If my local Laboratory can report correctly on measurable antibodies in serology tests I don’t understand why the “new in house” test kits aren’t doing so.
Thank you! I think it is worth investigating. Below is the way my local Laboratory is reporting in 2012 … THIS type of reporting is in line with Dr Ronald Schulz’s views
By comparison, in house tests could be offering far less of the truth.
CANINE PARVOVIRUS IFA SEROLOGY TITRE: Positive
CANINE DISTEMPER IFA SEROLOGY TITRE: Positive
INTERPRETATION: Antibody assays for Canine Distemper virus (CDV) and Canine
Parvo virus 2 (CPV-2) are of the greatest benefit in monitoring humoral
immunity to the core vaccines. This test is a screening test to determine the
level of anti-CPV-2 and anti-CDV IgG in the serum. In these tests there is
excellent correlation between the presence of any positive humoral response and
protective immunity.
On completion of the puppy vaccination series – and as long as the puppy is >14-16
weeks of age and the test is performed 2 weeks after the last vaccination -
a positive titre implies protective immunity. Seronegative animals should be
revaccinated and retested and should be considered unprotected and susceptible
to infection.
A positive titre in an adult animal indicates protective immunity. Any
positive titre is adequate for protection. Seronegative animals should be
considered unprotected and may benefit from revaccination. WSAVA Guidelines
for the vaccination of dogs and cats. JSAP 2010 volume 51.
FINAL REPORT:24/04/2012
By contrast, this is the Instruction manual and results interpretation for VacciCheck http://www.modernveterinarytherapeutics.com/canine%20vaccichek.pdf
Below is from page 17 of the Canine Vaccine Guidelines from the American Animal Hospital Association 2011 https://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/CanineVaccineGuidelines.pdf
“There are currently two in-hospital tests that provide a positive or negative result that have been approved by the USDA. A positive CDVresult on these tests indicates that a serum sample has an antibody titer that is >8 (32) on the VN test. A positive result for CPV-2 indicates the serum sample has an antibody titer that is >20 (80) with the HI test. A negative test indicates that the dog has a titer less than these values or that it has no antibody. Obviously, some dogs with a negative result on this test are immune, but most of these dogs would benefit from revaccination by developing a higher titer. After performing and comparing many serologic tests for thousands of dogs, researchers found that approximately 15 +/- 5% of dogs will have low (=/<32 VN) or no antibody to CDV. A similar percentage but different dogs will have low or no antibody to CPV-2 (=/<80 HI) on the test. With CDV and/or CPV-2 tests, dogs with a negative result, regardless of the test used, should be considered as having no antibody and may be susceptible to infection with CDV and/or CPV-2; thus, these dogs should be revaccinated to ensure there is immunity. In contrast, any dog with a positive result, regardless of the test performed, should be considered immune and does not need to be revaccinated.42,54"
Even when (in the previous 11 years) my local Laboratory provided results in globally agreed measurements and interpretations of the time, a low titre level was always qualified;
"Dogs with a titre of <1:5 may have suboptimal protection. Note that it is possible that lower titres are protective and the influence of the cell mediated response cannot be reliably assessed in this manner".
(the <1:5 on the IFA test is the equivalent of <80 for Parvo on the HI test, and < 32 for Distemper on the VN test).
Maybe where lab testing is expensive, in house test kits like VacciCheck are a step forward? (Serology testing by Lab's isn't prohibitively expensive in Australia).
I realise that many dogs will show protective antibody levels with the in house test kits, so maybe they are good? I just feel that they're not telling the whole truth, and quite deliberately so. I'd love to know what you think once you look into it further.
Thank you Mandy. We have opened communication with Biogal and we are waiting to hear back. Having said that, the only time we really advocate running a titer is two to three weeks after vaccination, at which point there should be a considerable amount of antibody. Once a positive titer is obtained, there is no need to run another titer at any point in time. In this situation, an in-house test would likely be of value.
At any other point in time, a low or negative titer doesn’t necessarily indicate the dog is not protected. As we all know, titers measure only circulating antibody whereas the bulk of the immune system (a properly functioning immune system), is in the memory cells, not the circulating antibodies. Ironically, vaccination has the ability to turn the immune system ‘inside out’ and creates a humeral bias, meaning that the immune system artificially relies on antibody protection instead of the memory cells. This indicates that instead of indicating protection, a high titer could actually indicate the immune system is malfunctioning. If you are a subscriber to the magazine, Dr. Don Hamilton DVM has written a nice piece on titers and the second installment will be published in the July 2012 issue.
We will post the response from Biogal when we get it.
Mandy, here is the response I received from Len Small of Biogal:
VacciCheck results come on a scale of 0-6. 0 means no titer, any result that is 1 or 2 shows some titer. Any result that is 3 or more shows a positive result as defined by Prof. Schultz.
For CDV, an S1 result would be <1:8, for CAV, 1:4 and for CPV, <1:40
So to the question, is it true that a low titer could register as a negative with the test? The answer is yes.
The AAHA guidelines answer as you read above in terms of what to do with a result of 1-2 is the consensus answer.
The answer doesn’t quite add up – we will keep you posted.
The problem with VacciCheck is that the test will report a negative result when there are antibody levels present. The levels they are using in the test kit and which are considered “protective” is equivocal. Basically, a measurable low titre will be reported as a negative result. There is likely to be no explanation from the local Vet clinic that the low titre is likely to be protective. This may well result in unnecessary vaccinations, and at the very least the whole picture will not be provided to pet guardians by Veterinarians performing an in house test. There is a great deal of literature to suggest that any measurement of antibody presence in an adult dog may be considered protective. I feel that the Laboratories, which perhaps cost a little more, are more likely to report the whole serology picture. As VacciCheck and TitreCheck need to appeal to Veterinary clinics who are very cautious in transitioning to less vaccinations, be aware that the test kits will report low titres as absolute negative results, and there is debate about the truthfulness of that.
Thanks Mandy – this is an interesting piece of information. Dr. Ronald Schultz was involved in the testing for Vaccicheck so I’m curious why he reports that it responds well when he advocates any amount of titer as protective. We will look into this further, thank you.
http://vaccicheck.com/products-page/
“Spectrum Labs, the worldwide leader in serum allergy testing is proud to offer VacciCheck services. Simply submit 10 microliters of whole blood or 5 microliters of serum, along with the VacciCheck order form below, and you will receive semi-quantitative results the same day the sample is received.”
That doesn’t sound like a test that a vet can run in the office.
https://animalhealth.pfizer.com/sites/pahweb/US/EN/Products/Pages/ASSURE-Parvo.aspx does
Vaccicheck is definitely an in house test. It is manufactured by Antech – the quote you found is from a Pfizer product, not Canine Vaccicheck.
My papillon had a severe reaction to rabies vaccine when he was a puppy. I did not know the cause of his behavior problems and he was vaccinated two mores times. When he was do to be vaccinated again, I had figured it out so I had his titers tested. It cost $185.50 plus the office call. He had 600 times the level of immunity he needed! 600 times!
Pam,
I had a similar experience with my wire haired mini dachshund a long time ago! He also got auto immune mediated hemolytic anemia from being over vaccinated.
I simply do not understand WHY we are told to keep vaccinating and vaccinating some more. It is a reckless practice!
Why are we ruining the health of our dogs?
I recently had a new client who’s 3 month old puppy got a 5-way shot PLUS rabies at age 3 months. Naturally had an allergic reaction…but then the vet said…oh, no big deal: for the next 5 way shot we are just going to give her Benadryl in advance! What kind of vet would DO that?
Can’t they make enough money with titer tests?