Vaccinated Harlies!

I didn't realize this at the time, but apparently there is a lot of controversy about BunnyVac, the Pasteurella multocida vaccine. I vaccinated all of my Harlequins today, for better or worse. I have been told that some breeders and owners will not buy from vaccinated herds and that there is pressure to question the effectiveness of the vaccine and whether there are any actual benefits to the rabbits vaccinated. There is a lot of concern that we, as breeders, would be doing harm to our beloved rabbits by vaccinating. This is what I wrote on a thread about treating snuffles on Homesteading Today, in case it helps anyone out:

I know there is usually a lot of emotion when this topic starts to get going, but I think we are in an era where we can make educated decisions that may not only benefit our herd, but may benefit other rabbit breeders. Please bear with my long post, but I think a lot of rabbit breeders believe (and I thought this myself for many years) that a strong immune system prevents or can fight off snuffles. Operating under this assumption, I think the unfortunate reality is that we are breeding generation after generation of carriers. When a snotty rabbit appears- we as breeders most often don't culture it. We kill it and when there is no more snot, we think the problem is resolved. The evidence for this not being the case is that after more than 30 years of cull the sick mentality, rabbit breeders are still dealing with snot and upper respiratory symptoms regularly. There are threads upon threads about it in rabbit forums as we all know.

P. multocidais just a gram-negative bacteria, like typhoid fever. You don't have to have a weakened immune system to get an infection. It doesn't help, but bacteria are opportunistic and if they happen to get into your sinus cavity, then you can get a sinus infection even if you were otherwise strong and healthy. How many of us have had to take antibiotics because we had an infection? I know I have. The thing is that breeders (myself included again) tend to rationalize why a rabbit was having respiratory symptoms such as dust, pollen, a weather change, etc. It seems certain, though, that many if not most rabbits are colonized with this bacteria. That is why a random rabbitry may suddenly have a problem with snuffles where one didn't exist before when no new rabbits were brought in and no shows were attended. All that happened is that colonized rabbit(s) experienced stress of some sort (keeping in mind they already have the infection) and became symptomatic (such as thick nasal discharge). Typhoid fever is a good example in humans for why culling those with symptoms just doesn't work. Typhoid Mary is a pretty famous lady- she was a carrier with no symptoms that is believed to have infected 53 people until she was isolated from the public. Fortunately for all of us, a vaccine was developed. Of course there have been refinements since, but the typhoid fever vaccine is still in use today in the United States for those going to countries where typhoid fever is still a problem.

Do I think there could be more clinical trials for the vaccine? Yes. However, the data from the study that was collected did support the vaccine in a significant way, which is far superior than breeders stating they cull the sick and the problem is resolved without any actual science to back the claim. Over the past 8 months or so, several breeders have come forward stating they have had good results with the vaccine in their herd, including a breeder who had unvaccinated rabbits become ill after the county fair and her vaccinated stock remained unchanged and outwardly healthy.

As for a vaccinated rabbit developing snuffles- there are several bacterium that have been associated with this disease. The vaccine is for P. multocida and not all of the rest such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Bordetella bronchiseptica to name a few that there is no protection for. In other words, just because a rabbit has BunnyVac does not mean it is protected from every form of upper respiratory infection just like how a dog can still get kennel cough even with the vaccine. I personally am going to try vaccinating my herd and any offspring produced- it is exceedingly inexpensive ($1-$2/rabbit) even by my standards and I want to support the research and development that contributes to scientific advances for rabbits.

As always, I encourage everyone to do their own homework. I don't have any affiliation with the vaccine developer. I have, however, dealt with snuffles in the past and have always culled the offender. I would love to see a day like we have with our other livestock when a shot can prevent the loss of our animals.