Titre Testing

[Sonic]

I had titres done on my dog and it is showing that she has less than 1:5 for Distemper - 1:20 and above is best. It has been only around 15 months since she was last vaccinated and you would expect that she would still be showing good immunity to it - her Parvo result was very good - >= 1:80.

Has anyone had this happen and, if so, what did you do?

The recommendation has been to revaccinate her now and then run titres again in a month to see if she has been able to produce antibodies. If not then she apparently never will.

[Guest Tess32]

It's likely that she just hasn't come into contact with any distemper and so there is no need for a lot of antibodies being around. Distemper isn't very common whereas dogs probably do come into contact with parvo more often.

[Staranais]

It's possible that she's been vaccinated and just not come in contact with the agent since, so the level of antibody in her system has faded (while she has retained the memory cells so is still adequately immune to the disease). I'm not sure how fast that could happen, so am not sure if it's a possibility in this scenario.

It's also possible that she didn't have a good response to the vaccine you used. We can't tell if that happened, since you didn't have her titred immediately after the first vaccination to see if she responded to it or not. (That's not a dig at you - most people don't, it's expensive).

You could try a different brand of vaccine - they're sometimes made of different strains of virus - or a different "type" if you have one available. Different vaccines often use different antigen combinations, so that way you'd be targeting a different B cell(s) in her immune system. If she lacks the cell(s) to respond to the first vaccine, she could still have the cell(s) to respond to the second. That's the approach I would take if it was my dog.

Since she's responded beautifully to the parvo, she's obviously capable of a good immune response to some things.

No matter what you decide to revaccinate with, I'd personally try to get a distemper only shot - no point repeating the parvo since she's still immune to that.

If you do revaccinate and you do see that you have got a good response after a month to the vaccine, I feel you can be more confident leaving her 3 years or more before vaccinating again (if you choose to do that), since you know the vaccine definitely worked this time and any fall in titre is probably simply due to less antibody (not less memory cells) in circulation.

[Kavik]

With titre testing, how often does it have to be done? Do you need to test regularly for immunity or does this last a certain amount of time or forever? If I went the titre testing route and have to present results for clubs, does this have to be done annually like vaccination? Still trying to get my head around this

[Staranais]

With titre testing, how often does it have to be done? Do you need to test regularly for immunity or does this last a certain amount of time or forever? If I went the titre testing route and have to present results for clubs, does this have to be done annually like vaccination? Still trying to get my head around this

All titre testing means is that your dog had a good antibody response to the vaccine when you did the test. It's like a snapshot in time.

For core canine vaccines (C3), there is good evidence that shows that this one positive titre test means your dog is probably immune for at least 3 years after you did the test and possibly for the rest of their lives. That doesn't hold true for titre results from all veterinary vaccines, but it does for the core canine viruses (and possibly parainfluenza too).

Repeated titre testing is of limited use, since if the dog doesn't come into contact with the virus, he'll probably gradually lose the antibody in his system and will "fail" the titre test, which doesn't mean that he's no longer immune - it just means you can't "prove" he's still immune, since memory cells are invisible to the titre test.

Really, it depends what your dogsport club says, and how long they are willing to accept your C3 titre test scores as valid for before they make you retest to check whether your dog is still provably immune. Most kennels and dogsport clubs don't accept one titre test as proof of life long immunity, but I predict that in years to come they probably will come to do so.

Edited July 28, 2009 by Staranais

[Kavik]

Thanks

[Sonic]

Thanks for your replies.

I sent the results to Dr Jean Dodds who answered my query almost immediately. She has suggested my girl might be a non responder, meaning she will never have immunity to distemper, but her email also suggested the revaccination with a titre test a month later to see how she responds.

I will see if my vet has other strains of the vaccine but I do know that she will have to be vaccinated with C3 again as he doesn't carry the single vaccinations - does anyone in Australia have them singly?

[Ptolomy]

I am in a similar boat and unfortunately there is no distemper only vaccine available in Australia

[pie]

Mine also had low results for Distemper, from memory I think they were 1:20. I chose not to revaccinate because as Ptolomy said they don't do a single vaccine.

I had him tested about a year ago now and I would be interested to have him done again because since then he has been to an aboriginal community where Distemper is likely to be.

[Staranais]

Mine also had low results for Distemper, from memory I think they were 1:20. I chose not to revaccinate because as Ptolomy said they don't do a single vaccine.

I had him tested about a year ago now and I would be interested to have him done again because since then he has been to an aboriginal community where Distemper is likely to be.

If you do, I'd be really interested to hear your results.