Vaccination Recommendations of the American Association of Feline Practitioners as of March 2006

The American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) classifies vaccines as CORE (vaccinations that should be given to ALL cats) and NON-CORE (vaccinations that should be given only to cats who are at substantial risk for contracting the disease due to living conditions.  Any given cat’s risk for contracting a given disease is significantly reduced by keeping the cat indoors (which also eliminates injuries, potentially fatal, from vehicles, other animals, birds of prey, and unfriendly humans).  It is also important to remember that there is no such thing as a sure thing; vaccines are not rated as always providing 100% protection from disease, and that vaccinations can have their own serious side effects. 

Vaccinations work to confer immunity by causing the cat’s immune system to produce antibodies against the disease.  Sometimes, vaccines are mixed with a substance called an adjuvant, which causes the kitty’s body to react more forcefully to the vaccine to produce anti-bodies, but some adjuvants can cause serious side effects. The vaccines which produce the fewest side effects (fever, soreness at the injection site, etc.) are those that do NOT use aluminum adjuvants. Ask your veterinarian to administer ONLY vaccines which do NOT contain aluminum adjuvants. It is also possible to OVER-VACCINATE your kitty, potentially causing illness; research over the past several years has resulted in the AAFP recommending that many vaccinations be given at longer intervals, as described in the table below.

Purrfect Companions cats and kittens receive core vaccinations as recommended by the AAFP. NON-CORE vaccines are neither given nor recommended. Here is a simple guide to these vaccines.  We urge ALL kitty caretakers to become educated about vaccinations and to give ONLY those vaccinations which your kitty truly needs.  These recommendations are made, based upon a cat residing strictly indoors and being in a household where the FeLV (feline leukemia) and FIV (feline immunovirus) status of all cats is known.  

*Panleukopenia (distemper) is an illness which is contagious to other animals. It is invariably fatal.

Rabies IS transmissible to other animals AND to humans. Rabies causes severe neurological damage and is almost always fatal.  New York State laws require rabies vaccination, and proof of such vaccination. If your kitty bites or scratches someone, it is the law that the victim can require the cat to be quarantined at a veterinarian’s office for 6 months, or killed for testing. Testing cannot be performed on a live animal. Your kitty’s life depends upon  your compliance with the rabies vaccination requirement. It is neither necessary nor recommended by AAFP to test your kitty’s “titer” before giving vaccinations.

Other vaccinations which are frequently “suggested” by veterinarians include FeLV, FIV and FIP.  The FeLV vaccine has been strongly linked with the development of injection site sarcoma, a highly invasive and fatal form of cancer.  FIV vaccination renders future testing invalid, as the tests are looking for anti-bodies, which is what the vaccination produces.  FIP vaccines are still highly unreliable and may in fact bring on the disease, which is fatal. For more information about vaccinations, search the website of The Winn Foundation.