One of the more unknown factors when we related to vaccines, in both humans or canines, is the concentration of maternal antibodies a baby receives. Maternal antibodies are a type of protein passed on from mother to pup through the embryo and breast milk to help the body fight off outside diseases. While the concept of maternal antibodies is easy to understand, the mystery of maternal antibodies lurks within each individual dog.
In order for a mother to pass on antibodies to her litter, she must have immunity and be vaccinated herself. Many wonder how much immunity the mother has to be passed on: Did she receive the vaccines or titer tests at the recommended schedule ensuring adequate immunity? Does the mother have any genetic or immune system conditions? If so, she should not have been used for breeding in the first place, but that’s another topic for another day. Knowing the mothers vaccine history will be a big help in determining the maternal antibodies of her pups.
Maternal neutralizing can typically be identified after the first round of vaccines using a titer test. This can happen when a pup is given a vaccine – the maternal antibodies fight off the vaccine and neutralizes it instead of creating antibodies. Puppies vaccinated too early can still inhibit some of this immunity. Next, we have to consider the litter and how much immunity the pups received. While all dogs will receive a close to equal amount of antibodies in the embryo, some litter members may drink more breast milk then others, leading all puppies to have a similar but not consistent level of antibodies across them all.
When puppies receive their first round of vaccines we need to be confident that the mothers antibodies are decreasing. While we can’t know the exact time this happens, especially since the antibodies level varies per individual pup, we aim to give the first dose after six to eight weeks.
Maternal antibodies are very effective, leading to a weakened antibody response. Studies have found that maternal antibodies can protect pups for eight to 14 weeks; this is if the mother has immune antibody levels. “As a result, at least three doses of the core vaccines must be administered every three to four weeks beginning between six and eight weeks of age with the final dose administered on or after 16 weeks of age to ensure that a susceptibility gap does not develop between the loss of maternal immunity and vaccination,” according to the NCBI, National Center for Biotechnology. We believe titer tests can eliminate the need for so many boosters to determine when a pup’s system responds to the vaccine and activates long-term protection. Lastly, it’s known for a boost vaccination to be given at one year; this boosts any existing protection. It can be given at any point after six months of age shortening any possibility of unprotected or unvaccinated dogs.
