What is Titre Testing for dogs?
A Titre test measures antibody levels in blood. Titre testing in dogs test helps reduce vaccination failure, prevents over-vaccination consequences and helps owners and vets to make informed vaccination decisions.
Why titre test?
The veterinary industry agrees that vaccines are necessary but the frequency in which they are administered is often debated. In particular, the recommendation to administer core vaccines to adult dogs and cats at 3 year intervals (or longer) rather than annually resulted in differences of opinions among veterinarians.
It has now been shown that duration of immunity after vaccination with MLV vaccines for most animals will be many years or a lifetime, based on challenge and serological studies (Schultz et al. 2010). If an animal already has a protective level of immunity, revaccination will not be required.
Titre Testing is a rapid and affordable option to check the titre levels for the core diseases that are vaccinated against. It provides easy to interpret results which determine whether the animal has a protective level of immune response or whether they need revaccination.
With high sensitivity and specificity, canine titer testing is designed to ensure that animals are protected whilst avoiding unnecessary medical intervention.
This is supported by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) Guidelines, which state that an animal that returns a positive titre has a protective level of immunity and therefore does not require revaccination.
The Benefits
There are a number of ways titer testing can be beneficial to determine a dog’s antibody titre levels of the 3 core diseases:
- To determine when it is optimal to end the vaccine series
- After a dog vaccination to indicate immunisation success was achieved
- To determine if a booster is required
- To ascertain existing protection for a lapsed dog or cat vaccination program
- To test a stray/abandoned animals with no clinical history
- To test animals on immunosuppressant treatment
- Can be used as part of an annual health check program
- Can help with minimising the risk of adverse effects of vaccinations
- Reduces the risk of over-vaccination consequences
- Quick results
Antibody Testing for dogs and cats at Dragon Lab
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