Yours sincerely,
Catherine O'Driscoll
email [email protected] The Canine Health Census
CHC, Box 7553, Perth, Australia PH2 1AD
email [email protected]

Dear Editor,
In response to Sabine Hansske's query in the last IVN issue, a year or two ago a programme on New Zealand television reported on the devastating effects of vaccination in kittens whose development became stunted after vaccination. I was told by a cat breeder that it was so bad that cat breeders falsified documents to testify their (unvaccinated) animals were vaccinated to ensure their animals were admitted to show competitions , simply because they could no longer bear to see their valuable animals ruined by vaccination.

Dr. Gerhard Buchwald MD in his book Impfen - Das Gesch?ft mit der Angst (Vaccination - A Business Based on Fear) reports that there were many more outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in European countries where cattle was vaccinated against the disease than in the European countries which didn't vaccinate. It was only when the use of the vaccine was prohibited in the European Union that there were no further outbreaks (similar to smallpox which only disappeared once mass vaccination programmes were replaced by strict quarantine and disinfection measures).

The vaccine against the swinepest was prohibited in the European Union for similar reasons. Veterinarian Dr. K. Strohmaier from Tubingen-Germany commented:

"The experience of the last few years has shown that vaccinations only suppress the disease, which can soon return... Vaccinations prevent the establishment of healthy pig-populations."

Paediatricians could learn a lot from veterinarians. Whether they want to is another matter.

Erwin Alber, Vaccination Information Network
New Zealand