Research published in the July 2017 issue of the journal Vaccine found that dogs who receive rabies vaccines experience better health overall. The researchers hypothesize that the protective association between rabies vaccination status and all-cause mortality is due to a protective effect of rabies vaccine against diseases other than rabies.
Source: Vaccine, July 5, 2017. Link.
Highlights
- Rabies vaccine has a strong protective effect against all-cause mortality in dogs.
- The effect is present across all age groups but weakens with increasing age.
- This effect cannot be accounted for by a specific protective effect against rabies.
- Dogs may provide a model to study non-specific protective effects of rabies vaccine.