WSAVA vaccination guidelines for the dog and the cat

In 1996, a group of academicians and feline practitioners met in an effort to develop vaccination recommendations for cats. At the time, we were concerned with a series of publications highlighting that, at least in some cats, feline leukaemia and rabies vaccines were causally associated with a particularly aggressive form of fibrosarcoma. If recommendations could be written that were consistent with good immunisation practices, yet requiring fewer vaccine doses over the lifetime of the cat, perhaps it would be possible to reduce the risk of what was being called at the time: “vaccine associated sarcoma” (today known as feline injection-site sarcoma or FISS). This work culminated in the first set of Feline Vaccination Guidelines, published in 1998, which included recommendations for administration of fewer doses of vaccine over the lifetime of the cat while introducing terms such as “core” versus “non-core” vaccines. Since then, vaccination guidelines for both dogs and cats have been published for the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Canada and, most recently, Asia. Guidelines for Latin America are under consideration at this time. Clearly, vaccination guidelines have gone global. Also, as this iteration of the WSAVA Vaccination Guidelines highlights, the business of vaccines and vaccination is dynamic and very much subject to change. Scientific updates, regional variations in infectious disease risk, emerging pathogens and new vaccines represent just a few of the variables involved with keeping vaccination guidelines current and relevant. 1