ALABAMA Rabies Law--SB#469
Alabama pet owners not wanting their state to be the only one in the country with an annual rabies booster requirement for dogs and cats have begun requesting their Legislators to change the law to conform to the national 3 year standard. Below is a copy of my letter to the Alabama Public Health Veterinarian and State Health Officer on behalf of The Rabies Challenge Fund and the Alabama pet owners who have contacted us. The move to change Alabama's rabies law was covered in a story on
ABC 33/40 NEWS 2/26/09 by Ebony Hall
Yearly Rabies Shots Necessary? http://cfc.abc3340.com/videoondemand.cfm?id=34561
Alabama Rabies Law
Senate Bill #469 sponsored by Senator Larry Dixon
http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/ViewBillsStatusACASLogin.asp?BillNumber=sb469 was introduced on March 5, 2009 to amend Alabama Code Title 3 Section 7A-2 to conform to the 3 year rabies protocol and include a medical exemption clause for animals whose well-being would be jeopardized by rabies vaccination.
This bill still needs to pass the House, so concerned pet owners should contact their legislators and ask them to pass SB 469.
Alabama Legislature: You can find contact information for your Senator and Representative at the following link:
http://www.legislature.state.al.us/
Montgomery Advertiser March 10, 2009
Bill May Save Pet Owners Cash by Markeshia Ricks
[URL]http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903100335[/URL]
"State Sen. Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery, is sponsoring a bill that would change a law that requires dogs and cats to be vaccinated against rabies each year. Instead, most pet owners will only have to round up their animals and pay for the shots once every three years.
Dr. Charles Frantz, executive director of the Alabama Veterinarian Medical Association, said vaccines for dogs and cats that immunize an animal against rabies for three years have been around for at least 20 years."
PERMISSION GRANTED TO POST AND CROSS-POST
February 25, 2009
Dr. Dee Jones Dr. Donald E. Williamson
State Public Health Veterinarian State Health Officer
Department of Health Department of Health
201 Monroe Street, P.O. Box 303017 201 Monroe Street, P.O. Box 303017
Montgomery, AL 36104 Montgomery, AL 36104
RE: Alabama Code Title 3 Chapter 7A-2--Dogs and Cats to be Immunized
With the recent passage of Act 159 paving the way for Arkansas to conform to the national 3 year rabies immunization standard, Alabama has become the only state in the country to adhere to a now outdated annual rabies vaccination requirement for dogs and cats.
Title 3 Chapter 7A-2 of the Alabama Code mandating annual rabies vaccinations is counter to the recommendations of the American Veterinary Medical Association [1] and the Center for Disease Control’s National Association of State Public Health Veterinarian’s
Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control 2008 which states that,
“Vaccines used in state and local rabies control programs should have at least a 3-year duration of immunity. This constitutes the most effective method of increasing the proportion of immunized dogs and cats in any population (50).” They specifically warn that,
“no laboratory or epidemiologic data exist to support the annual or biennial administration of 3- or 4-year vaccines following the initial series.”
It is recognized that most, if not all, currently licensed annual rabies vaccines given annually are actually the 3-year vaccine relabeled for annual use -- Colorado State University's
Small Animal Vaccination Protocol for its veterinary teaching hospital states:
“Even with rabies vaccines, the label may be misleading in that a three year duration of immunity product may also be labeled and sold as a one year duration of immunity product.” According to Dr. Ronald Schultz of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, whose canine vaccine studies form a large part of the scientific base for the 2003 and 2006 American Animal Hospital Association’s (AAHA) Canine Vaccine Guidelines, as well as the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s 2007 Vaccine Guidelines,
“There is no benefit from annual rabies vaccination and most one year rabies products are similar or identical to the 3-year products with regard to duration of immunity and effectiveness.”[2]
Alabama’s code requiring annual rabies boosters may have been intended to achieve enhanced immunity to the rabies virus by giving the vaccine more often than the federal 3-year licensing standard, but, more frequent vaccination than is required to fully immunize an animal will not achieve further disease protection. Redundant annual rabies shots needlessly expose dogs and cats to the risk of adverse effects while obligating residents to pay unnecessary veterinary medical fees. The American Veterinary Medical Association's
2001 Principles of Vaccination state that
“Unnecessary stimulation of the immune system does not result in enhanced disease resistance, and may increase the risk of adverse post-vaccination events.” The current rabies immunization code may violate Title 8 Section 8-19-5 of Alabama’s Consumer Protection Law by requiring pet owners to pay for a yearly veterinary medical procedure from which their animals derive no benefit and may be harmed.
Immunologically, the rabies vaccine is the most potent of the veterinary vaccines and associated with significant adverse reactions such as polyneuropathy
“resulting in muscular atrophy, inhibition or interruption of neuronal control of tissue and organ function, incoordination, and weakness,”[3] auto-immune hemolytic anemia,[4] 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 all linked to the rabies vaccine.[5] [6] It is medically unsound for this vaccine to be given more often than is necessary to maintain immunity.
A “killed” vaccine, the rabies vaccine contains adjuvants to enhance the immunological response. In 1999, the World Health Organization
“classified veterinary vaccine adjuvants as Class III/IV carcinogens with Class IV being the highest risk,"[7] and the results of a study published in the August 2003 Journal of Veterinary Medicine documenting fibrosarcomas at the presumed injection sites of rabies vaccines stated,
“In both dogs and cats, the development of necrotizing panniculitis at sites of rabies vaccine administration was first observed by Hendrick & Dunagan (1992).” [8] According to the 2003 AAHA Guidelines,
"...killed vaccines are much more likely to cause hypersensitivity reactions (e.g., immune-mediated disease)." [9]
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