RHD2 Vaccination Every 6 Months- Your Experience/Opinions Welcome

Following a report of confirmed RHD2 deaths VERY near to me my Vet has advised that my Rabbits are given Filivac (RHD2 Vaccine) every 6 months UTFN. We had been going for yearly Filivac after my Vet consulted with Richard Saunders (RWAF Vet).

I am totally neurotic about giving Filivac twice a year as that means my Rabbits will receive an RHD1 vaccine THREE TIMES a year (both the Nobivac Myxo-RHD vaccine and Filivac cover RHD1).

Has anyone had their Rabbits vaccinated with Nobivac Myxo-RHD yearly and Filivac TWICE yearly yet ? If so, has everything remained well for the vaccinated Rabbits ?

TIA x

Yep, all has been well with everybun here Personally I'm not that bothered about the multiple dosing of RHD1 because vaccines don't work in the same way as drugs so they don't 'overdose' in the same way. In my head, it's more akin to being tickled, if you get tickled three times a year rather than once, it stimulates a response at the time of being tickled but it doesn't do anything other than that.

It will be interesting to see how the whole 6/12m recommendation pans out in the longer term. One very small piece of comfort I take from the devastating news today of a new outbreak at a rescue is that all the rabbits who were vaccinated with filavac (I don't know how long ago) have survived, it was only babies who were too young to be vaccinated who have passed away. So the filavac really does seem to be working well in a non-clinical environment, which is a big relief.

Only two of my buns have had Filavac twice, actually 8 months apart as I was going for 12 monthly with decision pending... Until 2 fairly local confirmed outbreaks and FHB's advice to go for 6 monthly "until we know more". The others all had Cunivak first so no straight comparison. Both said rabbits fine.

Waiting with baited breath on this one mainly as £500 a year rides on this. I don't believe I have ever had a bun have a bad reaction to vaccine so less worried about that.

Yes, Filavac in Aug 16, combined vaccination in Feb 17 and Filavac again in May 17.
We were advised to have the Filavac annually unless we were taking the buns into a high risk situation, going into boarding for a week in the summer was considered a high risk.
I am hoping, now that we have the Filavac in May we can go to annually, as long as there are no cases near us

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

I'm very much sitting on the fence on this one at the moment, but will have to decide very soon. My three had Filivac last Dec and have just had their Myxo-RHD. I live in a rural area and wildies visit the garden (not so many these days). There have been suspected cases of RHD2 very close to me recently.

Last week my vet said she considered yearly to be OK for Filivac, but I'm not sure what she bases this on. I get the impression that vets/owners have views, which are possibly not informed views. It seems to me that the "safer" option is to give it 6 monthly, but this is not based on positive information, but on an "until we have more data" opinion. If this is the only information we have at the moment, then I will probably opt for 6 monthly, but I am uneasy about it.

I'm not sure about what is considered a "high risk" area either. We are certainly high risk for Myx as we have a large Mosquito population and have had Myx cases here in the past. But what is considered high risk for RHD2, which can also be spread on peoples' feet? If you live in an urban area where there are lots of rabbits living in gardens and there are confirmed cases amongst them, is that high risk? Or is it higher risk if those rabbits are living in houses (e.g. transmission on feet)? Is it higher risk to live in a rural area with a large wild rabbit population? I can imagine that all of those situations could be considered high risk, which leads me to the view that it's impossible to say currently with any certainty which area is low risk. Then there's the difficulty in diagnosis. Suspected cases are obviously not the same as confirmed cases and considering the fact that not many owners opt for PMs after their rabbit dies, it again leads to difficulty with trying to process the available data and make an informed decision.

Well given the fact that now Bobtails Rescue has been hit by RHD2 mine have just had their 2nd Filivac.

The RHD2 virus is utterly terrifying

Omi said:

Last week my vet said she considered yearly to be OK for Filivac, but I'm not sure what she bases this on. I get the impression that vets/owners have views, which are possibly not informed views. It seems to me that the "safer" option is to give it 6 monthly, but this is not based on positive information, but on an "until we have more data" opinion. If this is the only information we have at the moment, then I will probably opt for 6 monthly, but I am uneasy about it.

Click to expand...

In theory, yearly should be safe - their laboratory tests for their licence proved efficacy for the full 12 months (albeit in laboratory conditions with healthy rabbits, hence some of the caution...although surely this is no different to any other vaccine tests?), and indeed the new uk data sheet which was provided when it got its uk licence last month just says every 12 months and has dropped all reference to a booster at 6 months.

My understanding from conversations with various people and doing some reading around is that the original 6m recommendation was based on their initial tests which they did for a quick launch in France in response to outbreaks, but their subsequent testing for a full licence was done over a longer period which proved effectiveness over a full 12m. The original datasheet basically said that protection lasts for 12m but you can boost at 6m if you like, hence the RWAF having lots of conversations with the manufacturers about what this meant and them coming up with some advice on when might be appropriate to boost at 6m. I agree with you though that defining a 'high risk location' is really tricky; I'm sure it's out there far more than we know.

I think the whole 6m v 12m debate will continue for a while and it's going to be a case of discussing and coming to the most sensible and practical conclusion in consultation with your vet.