http://www.rabieschallengefund.org/
We believe that Merlin's PN was aquired not inherited. He was given multiple rabies shots that I sincerely believe shortened his life. He had 2 shots, one at 11 weeks and one at 13 weeks because the US did not recognize the Swiss shot.
Then at 4 years old he was given a 1 year shot by a vet who was doing a collection going
to Austraila. 4 months prior he had had a 3 year rabies. Please support this very important study!
Background
Research has demonstrated that overvaccination can cause harmful adverse effects in dogs. Immunologically, the rabies vaccine is the most potent of the veterinary vaccines and associated with significant adverse reactions such as polyneuropathy resulting in muscular atrophy, inhibition or interruption of neuronal control of tissue and organ function, incoordination, and weakness, auto-immune hemolytic anemia, autoimmune diseases affecting the thyroid, joints, blood, eyes, skin, kidney, liver, bowel and central nervous system; anaphylactic shock; aggression; seizures; epilepsy; and fibrosarcomas at injection sites are all linked to the rabies vaccine. It is medically unsound for this vaccine to be given more often than is necessary to maintain immunity, yet scientific research strongly indicates that the 3 year booster interval required by state laws may be unnecessary. French challenge study results published in 1992 showed that dogs were immune to rabies 5 years after vaccination and Dr. Ronald Schultz's serological studies proved that dogs have antibody titer counts at levels known to confer immunity to rabies 7 years after vaccination.
The goal of The Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust is to extend the legally required interval for rabies boosters to 5 and then 7 years by financing the concurrent 5 and 7 year rabies challenge studies currently beginning their third year at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine and being conducted according to the USDA's vaccine licensing code, Title 9 Section 113.209 by Dr. Ronald Schultz.
