In early May 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a conditional license to Elanco Animal Health Inc for a new parvo treatment that uses antibodies. Until now, veterinarians only could provide so-called “supportive care” rather than an actual canine parvovirus treatment. In other words, this is pretty big news. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before it’s available. Here’s why.
This is the last post in the series spawned by that canine parvovirus outbreak in Massachusetts. So far we’ve talked about how outbreaks happen, the window of risk for puppies, and vaccine nonresponders. Today, let’s look at ways veterinary researchers and veterinarians can pinpoint when is the best time to begin vaccinating puppies. It’s pretty cool stuff … though, not new. It has been around since the 1960s.
One in 1,000 dogs will never develop immunity to canine parvovirus no matter how many times they are vaccinated against the disease. When parvo first roared onto the canine scene in the 1970s, these genetic “non-responders” (as they are called) came primarily from certain breeds. Today, you’ll find non-responders in dogs of all shapes, sizes, and breeds. Keep reading to learn more …
Today, let’s talk about the window of risk that ALL puppies face and how that small gap in immunity will NEVER go away.
A bit unexpectedly, I found myself digging into the details of a recent (and ongoing) canine parvovirus outbreak in Massachusetts. Regular media tends to report just 2 things: (1) There is an outbreak. (2) Vaccinate your pets. That’s NOT nearly enough information for dog people like us, so I’ll be writing a series of posts with more details and more science behind parvo outbreaks and parvo immunity. This is the first post in the series. It explains what I want you to think when you first hear about a parvovirus outbreak.
