Animal Health Diagnostic Center -
Specialized Testing
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Vax Testing |
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| The Animal Health Diagnostic Center has developed a program
to address the concerns of many practitioners, investigators, and
animal owners about when to vaccinate cats and dogs and how long immunity
lasts. This program, called VAX-Testing, has two main objectives:
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To provide veterinarians with an aid for monitoring and assessing
the need for vaccination; and-
To serve as a research tool to help us establish duration of immunity.
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For the program to work efficiently, we ask that you follow a few
submission guidelines: |
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Submitting veterinarians must complete the VAX-Testing
registration form(PDF format) to participate in this program.
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All submissions to be included in the VAX program must either
use the modified submission
form(PDF format) or have the program name clearly indicated
on the submission form.
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Multiple animals can be submitted on a single form, but these must
represent a single owner. (Since our computer database ties the VAX
program to an accession by owner, the use of multiple owners on a
single submission will result in loss of data.)
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Animal identification must be consistent from year to year.
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With the first sample from an animal, the brand of vaccine used for
the most recent vaccination and the date administered should be included
(this may be useful in assessing antibody status).
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An adequate volume of serum should be submitted for the testing as
well as for the serum bank. Assume a 0.5 ml volume of serum is required
for each test with sufficient quantity leftover for the serum bank.
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What happens when samples are submitted for the VAX-Testing program? |
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Serological testing will be performed for those agents that are currently
controlled by vaccination.
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The serum samples submitted will be maintained in a serum bank (provided
sufficient serum remains after completing the requested testing).
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These samples will be used to assess changes in antibody levels over
many years (all samples tested on the same day).
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We will not retest these samples on a yearly basis so as not to exhaust
our supply of serum.
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The Animal Health Diagnostic Center will provide a yearly report
on the animals that are registered in the program as a reminder for
future sample submission.
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The annual report will include charts showing the antibody levels
of samples for specific agents submitted to the program for the past year.
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Extra information and resources: |
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For additional program information, please view the supplemental
VAX-testing document (PDF format), which is included with
the Test & Fee Schedule.
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To participate in this program, submitting veterinarians are required
to complete and submit the VAX-Testing
registration form(PDF format).
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Download the Vax-Testing submission
form(PDF format), which must be included with all submissions.
NOTE: All downloadable files have been made available in a
PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free
from the Adobe
Website, is needed to view and print these files. |
