New WSAVA Vaccination Guidelines Group Report Offers Advice On Vaccination Practice In Asia And Urges Action On Rabies

Professor Day talks with an Indian practitioner during one of the VGG visits to veterinary practices in New Delhi. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) Vaccination Guidelines Group (VGG) has released the final report following its three-year study of infectious disease prevalence and small companion animal vaccination practice on the Asian continent. Called Recommendations on Vaccination for Asian Small Animal Practitioners: a Report of the WSAVA Vaccination Guidelines Group, it offers advice to the profession in Asia in areas including undergraduate veterinary education; infectious disease surveillance and research; practitioner continuing education (CE) and vaccine licensing. It also summarizes the results of a VGG survey of almost 700 practitioners in selected Asian countries with regard to their experience of dealing with infectious disease and vaccination practice in their hospitals. Commenting, the Chairman of the VGG, Professor Michael Day from the University of Bristol in the UK, said: "This report is the culmination of three years work and fact-finding visits by the VGG to Japan, India, China and Thailand. We give advice on optimum vaccination practice in the Asian context; highlight key aspects of vaccine storage and delivery and respond to 80 questions posed frequently during the seven CE events we delivered to more than 800 practitioners during the project." "We also highlight the issue of canine rabies in many Asian countries and urge the profession in countries endemic for the disease to engage with the target set by the WSAVA One Health Committee and the International Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for global elimination of canine rabies by 2030." The VGG report has been accepted for publication as a peer-reviewed scientific manuscript in the official journal of the WSAVA, the Journal of Small Animal Practice and is available for public access on the VGG resource pages of the WSAVA website. Professor Colin Burrows, WSAVA President, said: "I am grateful for the hard work of Professor Day and his VGG colleagues and co-authors of the report: Ron Schultz, Richard Squires, Hajime Tusjimoto and Umesh Karkare. We also thank the VGG sponsors, MSD Animal Health, for their logistical support during the project." The VGG now begins its Phase IV Project, which will be a revision of the 2010 global vaccination guidelines for the dog and cat and which should be released late in 2015. The WSAVA is a not-for-profit body, dedicated to enhancing the quality of veterinary care for companion animals around the world. It works in key areas such as Continuing Education (CE), One Health and nutrition. It membership is made up of 92 veterinary organizations from all over the world, representing 145,000 individual veterinarians globally. Its Vaccinations Guidelines Group, kindly supported by MSD Animal Health, aims to develop globally applicable recommendations on best practice for the vaccination of dogs and cats. It is also at the forefront of work to eradicate canine rabies.

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