Does vaccination cause Pug encephalitis?

Re: Does vaccination cause Pug encephalitis?

Duncan Reavell — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:53:30 GMT

Thanks Rob, I have had a look at that paper, it seems to be a really good review of the condition, and finds no link between vaccination and the condition.

The owners are now keen on the serology route prior to vaccination, but I think I have convinced them to vaccinate against lepto.

Re: Does vaccination cause Pug encephalitis?

Rob Reid — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:47:41 GMT

I was asked a similar thing by a breeder a few years ago. After some research I too could find no evidence for a link in the literature. My theory is that because a lot of these cases occur between 12-18 months of age, breeders asscoiate them with vaccination because they co-incidentally occur at the time when the dog has it's first booster.

I certainly wouldn't like to rule out a link as all studies seem to suggest that the disease is autoimmune in nature, however there has been one study that has ruled out a link with adeno and parvoviruses (and also herpesvirus) which in theory could make a reaction to these components of vaccine less viable.

I have seen a couple of cases in the last year - we did refer one for MRI, CSF etc and it lasted about 4 months post-referral on a combination of steroids and cytosine. Basically they don't do well! If you are interested - the following reference is fairly good in terms of content and further references.

Epidemiology of Necrotizing Meningoencephalitis in Pug Dogs : J.M. Levine, G.T. Fosgate, B. Porter, S.J. Schatzberg, and K. GreerJ Vet Intern Med 2008;22:961-968

Re: Does vaccination cause Pug encephalitis?

Gina Dungworth — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:23:42 GMT

[quote user="Rob Davis"]

I've certainly never come across this, and have safely vaccinated many pugs. Sounds like just another breeder-initiated scare.... I would ask the owner where the information has come from - are there any published papers etc, I can't imagine what the answer will be......!

[/quote]

Searching PubMed for 'Pug Encephalitis' brings up 20 papers from 1989 to recent, but adding ''vaccine' or 'vaccination' to the search brings up nothing. It's one of those questions that I'd expect would get bounced down to me if anyone asked it of our technical department, but I've never heard mention of it in the last three years.

Re: Does vaccination cause Pug encephalitis?

Niall Taylor — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:37:39 GMT

[quote user="duncan reavell"]An owner of a one year old pug yesterday came in for annual check up but refused to have the booster vaccination, as he said that the vaccine can cause Pug encephalitis[/quote]

Sounds like more anti-vaccination scaremongering to me. It would be very interesting to find out where this owner got their information from.

Cheers,

Niall

Re: Does vaccination cause Pug encephalitis?

Hanna Bennett — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:08:38 GMT

pug encephalitis definitely exists, and is very unpleasant. only seen one case, and that was an eight month old pug, which had been vaccinated as a pup but can't see how that triggered something months later. it went for referral but unsurprisingly was euthanased.

Re: Does vaccination cause Pug encephalitis?

Rob Davis — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:08:59 GMT