new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

John Helps — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:42:02 GMT

I think this is a valid point however with an estimated population of around 1.6 million rabbits, from the numbers of doses sold of the old product only around 15% of domestic rabbits were being vaccinated nationally.

An even smaller proportion would have been given vaccines biannually. I do believe there is a massive education opportunity to enhance rabbit welfare and also for improving the protection of our domestic rabbits with an increasing level of take up. I would like to think we can justify and encourage health checks at 6 months in a range of ways and I would hope that any negatives about removing one reason for the visit will be far offset by the potential wider welfare benefits of the change in protocol

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Rob Loxley — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 22:21:07 GMT

[quote user="Beverley Panto"]I too have concerns with bunnies going from six monthly to annual health checks - especially re. dental checks.[/quote]

On the flip side you've made vaccinating rabbits cheaper and easier for clients, so maybe we should be expecting to see more through the door?

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Beverley Panto — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:05:52 GMT

Not had a great uptake even on free health checks in the past if people don't perceive the benefit - certainly not as effective as requiring 6 monthly vaccinations!

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:57:58 GMT

[quote user="Beverley Panto"] Any other suggestions how to get any but the most dedicated of owners to buy into 6 month health checks with no tangible benefit?![/quote]

Do them without charge.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Beverley Panto — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:51:03 GMT

I too have concerns with bunnies going from six monthly to annual health checks - especially re. dental checks. Is anyone using any particular marketing/promotions to try and get owners to bring their bunnies in for a 6 monthly health check? I wondered about the possibility/ethics of slightly increasing the cost of the combined annual vaccine to cover an additional 6 month health check as well, so that people are encouraged to come in for checks - under the perception that they have already paid for it. Any other suggestions how to get any but the most dedicated of owners to buy into 6 month health checks with no tangible benefit?!

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Zoltan dr. Szabo — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:55:22 GMT

Hi Julie,

We have been using rhd+myxo vaccine for about 3 years in Hungary. There were not any problems with it. It works quite well.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:26:31 GMT

We've had confirmation on histopath of pm cases so it definitely is around.

I agree with Stephen - most sudden death rabbit cases never make it to a vet so the true incidence is probably far higher than we appreciate.

Marie

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Niall Taylor — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:18:25 GMT

[quote user="Stephen Courtney"]VHD is definitely around, but not often diagnosed as not many sudden death bunnies are PM'd.[/quote]

If they're not PM'd how do you know they're VHD ?

How do you know it's "definitely around" ?

Niall

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

James Laidlaw — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:44:44 GMT

Thanks for that John.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

John Helps — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:08:20 GMT

Being adjuvant free the product attracts no standard precautionary warning with respect to adverse consequences from human self-injection. Although I am not aware of any cases of self-injection as yet reported to us our expectation is that local reactivity would be similarly minimal to our other non-adjuvanted vaccine products

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

James Laidlaw — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:40:03 GMT

Is this vaccine entirely free of the concern with the oily VHD and digit loss if you accidentally self injected? I'm assuming it is as there are no advised warnings in the data sheets...

I'm not about to go injecting myself, just this was a reason we switched away from the previous one (lapizole) to the non-oily adjuvant version of the VHD (anivac).

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Bob Russell — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:09:03 GMT

Thanks!

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Gillian Mostyn — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:03:54 GMT

Thank-you.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

John Helps — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:42:27 GMT

Having noted the earlier discussion on this forum, we thought it best to clarify MSD's most recent advice on the potential for previous vaccination to interfere with the RHD response. From our field trials with low titre (10^3 vaccine) in rabbits previously given a foreign myxoma based vaccine we saw that a primary response to RHD could not be relied on in this specific subset of individuals. Note that primary responses to RHD in myxomatosis-naive rabbits and booster responses in animals previously given an RHD vaccine are not affected by this issue. Therefore the only significant subset of rabbits which had a questionmark over their RHD immunity after switching vaccines were those rabbits that had never been given an RHD vaccine but had been vaccinated against myxomatosis.

Foreign vaccines against myxomatosis are based on attenuated myxoma virus rather than Shope fibroma virus. Therefore, based on these data, further UK trial work was performed to assess the RHD serological responses after previous vaccination with the Nobivac Myxo product. Different titres of Nobivac Myxo-RHD were used 2 months after and 5.5 months after Nobivac Myxo and there was also a control group of naive rabbits vaccinated with Nobivac Myxo-RHD. From this trial we saw that the immune interference phenomenon was titre-dependant such that at a release titre of 10^5.4 the RHD serological responses showed a similar pattern to that shown to be effective in minimum titre Nobivac Myxo-RHD vaccinated naive rabbits. This titre is within the permitted release range for this product because safety trials were conducted with product at a titre higher than this. We have set the target release titre at this higher level during the switch over period to the new product so we believe that this effectively neutralises this issue for the UK at least. We therefore do not expect this immune interference phenomenon from previous vaccination to be a significant problem when switching from the old vaccine to the new in the UK and a simple swap to the new product would be entirely appropriate, provided any previous myxomatosis vaccines had been administered in the United Kingdom. In the rare eventuality that an animal has been vaccinated abroad provided the rabbit also has received an inactivated RHD vaccine too, Nobivac Myxo-RHD should boost effectively

Further information is available from your MSD account manager, our our veterinary support group technical team via support.uk@merck.com or by ringing us on 01908685685

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

salome2001 — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:21:04 GMT

sorry that post should have quoted the post where someone asked if they had ever seen a case of VHD, and refers to the disease, not the vaccine.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

salome2001 — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:19:48 GMT

it works very well in Australia, where is has superseded myxo as a way of killing feral rabbits

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Bob Russell — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:49:45 GMT

A snippet from a rabbit forum quoting part of an email apparently from MSD:

Quote

This is a snippet from one of my emails direct from the manufacturer:
'The question we need to solve in the work we are finishing right now is whether at the strength (titre) of vaccine we will end up releasing on the market one dose will be sufficient or whether we would only expect RHD (VHD) immunity after a second dose in the very specific subset of rabbits that have only ever been given Nobivac Myxo with no RHD vaccine. Since the strength we have in the final product is very close to the strength which worked well for both diseases after a single dose in all animals regardless of previous vaccination status our expectations are high. However before we can give definitive and final advice to vets on this issue we feel we need to prove this beyond all reasonable doubt with the actual product at the strenth it is released at. If we cant prove this for whatever reason we may have to issue a more complex guideline of two doses two weeks apart but only in this specific group of animals'

I haven't been told that they have proved that the vaccine is sufficient on it's own in an un-vaccinated rabbit, so I would assume that Ruby should receive another combi vaccine in two weeks.

End quote!

Whilst I value the internet as being a source of all wisdom I am not taking this as truth but there does seem to be a lot of confusion in the 'bunny' world and I find myself a tad confused as well!

Sadly MSD don't seem to have taken the trouble to come in to chat about the vaccine so I will give them a ring in the morning!

I thought the only previously available myxo vaccine anywhere was the Shope Fibroma vaccine showing how ignorant I am!

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Thomas Johnson — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:38:31 GMT

My understanding from the MSD rep is that the lack of efficacy against VHD only applies to rabbits that have had a previous live myxo vaccine, and as that has never been licensed in the UK (unlike continental Europe), it shouldn't be a problem.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:12:08 GMT

Well, I've bought some of the new vaccine and am starting to vaccinate un-vaccinated bunnies with it. For now I'll also keep a stock of the old ones for previously vaccinated bunnies,

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Bob Russell — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:02:56 GMT

Lots of interesting discussions on the rabbit forums. The latest suggestion is that the VHD may not be good enough so a pre-vaccination dose of another VHD vaccine may be recommended or possibly two doses of combined vaccine two weeks apart.

Assuming there is a grain of truth in some of these comments isn't this what the licencing process is all about?

Any updates from the horses mouth or is it continuing confusion?

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Rob Loxley — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:14:28 GMT

Well given the new myxo-vhd costs less than the other 3 single vaccines combined should be ok

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Stephen Courtney — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:55:42 GMT

My main concern about the single jab is that i feel bunnies definitely benefit from a twice yearly health check, will need to try to work that in cost wise so my bunny people are not out of pocket and their pets still get the twice yearly check for about the same cost as they are used to.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Stephen Courtney — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:54:03 GMT

VHD is definitely around, but not often diagnosed as not many sudden death bunnies are PM'd. It is super fast, one lady brought us a sudden death for dispoal, and when she got home the other bunny that had appeared fine, was stone dead. I PM ;d that one, and histology was consistent with VHD tho not confirmed with virology or serology. Sadly she got a new bunny troo quickly, unvaccinated, against advice - and that one dropped dead in 3 or 4 days. scary bug.

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Bob Russell — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:55:41 GMT

[quote user="Robin Grimmer"]

OK, so it's annual then? No need for 6-monthly myxo injections?

Has anyone actually seen or heard of a case of VHD in this country?

[/quote]

Yup! Really not nice!

Re: new combined rabbit vaccine- thoughts??

Noweia — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:12:43 GMT

Both here too. There was an outbreak of VHD in the Edinburgh direction last year I think?