In the August 2008 issue of
The Whole Dog Journal, Dr. Ronald Schultz reports in an article entitled,
Vaccinations 101, by Lisa Rodier,
"Research shows that less than 50 percent of puppies will respond at six weeks; 75 percent at nine weeks; 90 percent at 12 weeks; and by 14 to16 weeks, close to 100 percent will respond. "
In an August 1, 2008 article in
DVM360 entitled
Vaccination: An Overview,
http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com....jsp?id=568351 Dr. Melissa Kennedy states:
Vaccination of the young begins at 6-8 weeks of age. Multiple boosters are given because maternal immunity interferes with vaccinal response. Because one doesn't know the level in each animal for each pathogen at each time point (and it is not feasible nor cost-effective to measure this), repeated boosters are given until the point when maternal immunity has likely decreased sufficiently to allow induction of immunity, usually at 16-18 weeks of age.
Vaccine Options & Prevention, MATERNAL ANTIBODY: OUR BIGGEST OBSTACLE http://www.marvistavet.com/html/vacc...revention.html
Puppies that were born first or were more aggressive at nursing on the first day, will get more maternal antibody than their littermates.
Mother dogs vaccinated at approximately the time of breeding will have the highest antibody levels to pass on to their puppies.
*** REMEMBER, the more maternal antibody a puppy has,
the less likely a vaccine is to work.
It should be noted that giving vaccine more frequently than every 2 weeks will cause interference between the two vaccines and neither can be expected to be effective. This includes giving vaccines for different infections. Vaccines should be spaced 2-4 weeks apart.
It is commonly held that puppies need a certain number of vaccines for protection to be achieved (usually either 3 or 4 is the “magic” number). The number of vaccines given has nothing to do with protection. In order for protection to be achieved, vaccine must be given when it can penetrate maternal antibody.