Lepto 4 vaccine: is it worth the risk?

There are safety concerns surrounding the Lepto4 vaccine from MSD (which incidentally contains thimerosal, aka the neurotoxin mercury).

I have to ask why the UK’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) would publish details about adverse reactions to the Lepto vaccine during 2014, but lump them in with adverse reactions to core vaccines? Would this be to hide the known safety concerns surrounding the Lepto 4 vaccine?

The VMD 2014 Review of Adverse Events Report states: “for the purposes of this report, we have classified core vaccines as those giving protection against any combination of distemper, parvovirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza and/or leptospirosis. We have done this, as in the UK dogs are almost invariably vaccinated against leptospirosis at the same time as the other diseases, which makes it very difficult to determine which vaccine component is responsible for the signs observed.”

So there’s a new…