Guidelines for vaccination in dogs and cats in Uruguay

Abstract

Vaccination is a widely used tool in veterinary medicine for the prevention of defined infectious diseases in pets. Due to the need of unifying scientific knowledge and recommendations on its use, this guide was developed with guidelines based on the epidemiology of diseases in Uruguay and the availability of commercial vaccines for its implementation. Small animal vaccines are divided into core and non-core. The core vaccines prevent from worldwide distributed life-threatening diseases and must be administered to all animals, aiming to achieve herd immunity. Non-core vaccines should be administered to animals whose geographic area, environment or lifestyle, exposes them to specific diseases. There are several factors that could interfere with active immunization, including maternal antibodies in puppies, concomitant parasitosis, the use of certain drugs and senescence of the immune system. Vaccines are safe biological products, but they are not exempt from causing adverse reactions in particular situations, though they usually are self-limiting. This guide proposes different vaccination plans for pets according to their age, as well as a guidelines for shelters vaccination. It was carried out considering the latest international recommendations, based on the available scientific knowledge and the epidemiological information in Uruguay. In this way, it is intended to help veterinary professionals to make the best use of vaccines, in an optimized and safe way.