Feline vaccination protocols: is a consensus emerging?

Three international panels have been established over the past 11 years to provide veterinarians with guidelines on the use of feline vaccines. These are the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) Feline Vaccine Advisory Panel, the World Small Animal Association Vaccine Guidelines Group (WSAVA VGG) and the European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD). The major recommendations of these three panels are summarised to show areas of agreement and areas of discrepancy. While the recommendations of the three groups are not fully aligned, all agree that core vaccines (those that every cat should receive) include panleucopenia virus (FPV), calicivirus (FCV) and herpesvirus (FHV-1) (with the addition of rabies virus where it is endemic or mandated by law). All the panels also recommend booster vaccination for the three core vaccines at intervals of more than one year in many situations (up to every three years for FCV and FHV-1 after the first booster, and at intervals no more frequently than every three years for FPV after the first booster), in view of the studies evaluating the duration of immunity for these vaccines. Precise recommendations vary though, and further studies are needed to provide additional information to clarify areas of discrepancy and further refine recommendations for the future. Ultimately the aim should be to vaccinate cats less frequently (based on a knowledge of the true duration of immunity conferred by vaccination), but to vaccinate more cats (and ideally every cat).