WHY DO VACCINES LAST PEOPLE THEIR WHOLE LIFE, BUT NOT PETS?
Vaccines are licensed based on the minimum duration they can be expected to last. In most cases, we truly do not know how long a pet will be immune from disease. A company cannot get a license for a longer duration unless they have the research to back it up. The only accurate method of proving immunity is to attempt to make a pet ill with an organism. If the pet does not get ill, the pet is considered immune. As you can imagine, this type of research can be costly and difficult to perform long term. However, some research is available and at this time, we do have several vaccines that have been shown to protect for at least three years. Most vaccines only have a one year license as that is as far as they have been researched. This does not mean the vaccine does not provide immunity for longer than one year. Measuring antibody levels against disease has proven to be inaccurate in determining protection .
