By TESS NACELEWICZ

Blethen Maine Newspapers

To protect against rabies, dogs are given shots every one to three years, depending on such factors as their age and the type of vaccine used.

But a Maine woman who is concerned that too-frequent rabies vaccinations are exposing pets to health risks has helped raise money for a study to look at whether dogs actually need far fewer shots.

The study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine will examine whether rabies vaccinations immunize dogs to that fatal disease for as long as five to seven years.

If the study shows that they do, dogs could get fewer rabies shots -- and face less risk from repeated exposure to a vaccine that can have adverse effects ranging from mild fever to cancer to death, according to the veterinary immunologist who will do the study.

Another benefit could be that more dog owners will get their pets vaccinated if they don't need shots as frequently, said Ronald Schultz, chairman of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

If the study shows that the vaccine lasts longer in dogs than now believed, it would also indicate that cats probably need less frequent rabies vaccinations, Schultz said.

The research is being funded by The Rabies Challenge Fund, a charitable trust founded by Kris Christine of Alna, who became concerned about rabies shots after her yellow Labrador, Meadow, was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. Christine said the mast cell cancer started at the spot where her dog got his rabies shot. She believes it was the cause.

The trust has raised $210,000, of which $177,000 will fund the first year of the study, according to Christine. Then, she said, $150,000 must be raised each year for the study, which will run for five to seven years.

Christine said she is confident that the money will come, because what has been raised so far has come from dog lovers from Maine and around the country, and even from Canada and Great Britain. "It's evidence of how much people love their dogs."

Meadow died of his cancer this summer, Christine said.

"Personally, I feel responsible for Meadow's decline because I didn't do my homework and I was redundantly vaccinating him on my veterinarian's say-so," she said. "He was the whole reason I did all this."

Don Hoenig, Maine's state veterinarian, said he would be interested in the results of the study. But he noted that the study will take years, and that rabies is a problem in Maine now.

While cases of rabid dogs are rare in Maine, he said, plenty of other animals carry the disease. As of Nov. 16 this year, 80 cases of rabies had been reported in bats, cats, foxes, raccoons, skunks and woodchucks.

When it comes to dogs, Hoenig said, "we err on the side of caution. I have no problem with vaccinating every three years and I think the adverse side effects, if there are any, are minimal."

But Schultz and Jean Dodds, a California veterinarian who Schultz said is an expert on adverse reactions to veterinary vaccines, said side effects exist. "Of all the veterinary vaccines, this is the one most likely to cause an adverse reaction," Schultz said.

He said that rabies vaccine is very potent, and that about one dog in 1,000 has some kind of a reaction to it.

He and Dodds said they don't want fear of adverse reactions to keep owners from getting their animals vaccinated, because rabies has far worse consequences.

A study done in France has shown that rabies vaccine is effective in dogs for five years, said Dodds, who is co-trustee of The Rabies Challenge Fund with Christine. But the study wasn't done according to U.S. Department of Agriculture standards so it is not accepted here.

Schultz' study will look at more than 80 dogs, one group vaccinated against rabies and the other group not vaccinated. After five years, the groups will be exposed to the rabies virus. If the vaccinated animals are still protected after five years, the study will be extended another two years to determine whether they retain their immunity to the disease.