Description of vaccination in dogs, cats and rabbits attending veterinary practices in the UK through use of e-health records

Abstract

Vaccination forms a major part of the veterinary professions' strategy to improve the health and welfare of companion animals. However, there is a lack of national information regarding vaccination in small animal practice. Here we used data gathered through the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET), to provide new insight into vaccination behaviour in companion animals' healthcare settings in the UK. Data were collected electronically in near real-time from 101 veterinary practices (245 premises). These data comprised animal signalment, owner's full postcode and the vaccination histories of 77,981 dogs, 34,930 cats and 3,835 rabbits included within the SAVSNET database between 22/11/2013 and 30/09/ 2015. Vaccination dates ranged between 24/03/1998 and 30/09/2015. The term 'vaccinated' was defined as any animal that had received at least one vaccination and it was recorded in its clinical health records. In dogs, pathogens considered a 'core' vaccines were canine distemper virus (CDV), canine parvovirus (CPV) and canine hepatitis virus (CHV); in cats, feline calicivirus (FCV), feline herpesvirus (FHV) and feline panleucopenia (FPV); and in rabbits, vaccines for myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD). Proportions and confidence intervals (95%) were calculated using robust standard errors to allow for the clustering within veterinary practices. Overall, 77.9 ± 0.2% of all animals were vaccinated (81.5 ± 0.3% of dogs, 73.1 ± 0.5% of cats and 48.4 ± 1.6% of rabbits). When animals of less than 6 months of age were considered, 76.7 ± 0.5% of animals were vaccinated (82.1 ± 0.6% of dogs, 69.1 ± 1.0% of cats and 45.3 ± 3.2% of rabbits). Median age (years) at first vaccination was 0.21 ± 0.01 for dogs, 0.33 ± 0.1 for cats and 0.35 ± 0.3 for rabbits. More than half (∼62.0%) of all cats were vaccinated for each core pathogen, whilst only ∼46.0% of dogs were vaccinated against each core pathogen. A total of 46.9% and 46.7% of rabbits were vaccinated for myxomatosis and RHD, respectively. Canine non-core vaccines such as vaccines for Leptospira spp., and parainfluenza virus were always administered with the core vaccines. In cats, the same was true for the noncore vaccine against feline leukemia virus. A considerable proportion of dogs, cats and rabbits had not been vaccinated against the core pathogens. In dogs and cats, few of the traditionally considered as non-core vaccines were always administered along with core-vaccines indicating the need of further research in the area of companion animal vaccinology to generate optimal recommendations for its vaccination.