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  Discussion on Research Summary: 3 years Tetanus protection?
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DrO

Posted on Friday, Aug 21, 2015 - 9:05 am:

We have long felt that the tetanus vaccine protects longer than a year and this study supports this opinion that following an initial series of 2 injections and then the yearly booster that the majority of horses are protected for at least 3 years. However this needs to be checked out for each vaccine and label changes made before actual changes are made.
DrO

Equine Vet J. 2015 Aug 18.
Duration of tetanus IgG titres following basic immunisation of horses.
Kendall A1, Anagrius K2, Gånheim A3, Rosanowski SM4, Bergström K5.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY:
Recommendations for prophylactic vaccination against tetanus in horses vary greatly between countries and have scarce scientific support in the peer-reviewed literature. In human medicine, recommended booster vaccination intervals are also very variable, but are considerably longer than for horses. More information is needed about the duration of immunity induced by modern vaccines.

OBJECTIVES:
To investigate if the duration of antibody titres previously determined to be protective against tetanus differ from what is indicated by recommended vaccination intervals for horses.

METHODS:
Thirty-four horses were enrolled for basic immunisation with an ISCOM Matrix-combination vaccine (Equilis Prequenza Te). Horses received the first vaccination at 5-11 months of age, and the second dose 4 weeks later. A third vaccine dose was given 15-17 months after the second dose. Serum tetanus antibody titres were analysed by ToBi ELISA 2 weeks as well as 14-16 months after the second dose. After the third vaccine dose, titres were checked once yearly for 3 years. Results were described by age and level of antibody titre at first sampling.

RESULTS:
Two weeks after the second dose all horses (34/34) had antibody levels that exceeded the limit of detection, 0.04 IU/ml. After 16 months the levels were above 0.04 IU/ml in 28/33 horses, the remaining 5 horses potentially had suboptimal protection against tetanus. After the third vaccine dose antibody levels remained above 0.04 IU/ml in 25/26 horses for one year, 16/16 horses for 2 years, and 8/8 horses for 3 years.

CONCLUSIONS:
Horses that undergo basic immunisation with 3 doses of vaccine after the age of 5 months are likely to have serum antibody titres consistent with protection against tetanus for more than 3 years. Current guidelines for tetanus prophylaxis should be revised.
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