RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia Commonwealth University researcher who helped develop a nationwide Lyme disease vaccine for dogs is now offering the preventative measure for free to the university's therapy dogs.
Dr. Richard Marconi, a researcher in the VCU Department of Microbiology, partnered with vaccine manufacturer Zoetis this week to provide free CR-Lyme vaccines for the more than 60 volunteers and their dogs in the Dogs on Call program.
"I read about the Dogs on Call program and I just found it to be a fascinating program," Marconi said. "I started thinking of ways to help those animals and sort of connect the research being done at VCU with the Dogs on Call program so that’s where we sort of developed the idea that we would offer these dogs vaccination for Lyme."
Dogs on Call Director Dr. Nancy Gee said the move is critical for the health and well-being of the canines. In dogs, Lyme disease can cause joint and muscle pain, arthritis, and even kidney failure. Gee said the vaccines will give volunteers peace of mind.
"We’re all about healthy dogs visiting those patients in the hospital so we’re focusing on the other side of it which is keeping those dogs healthy and getting them into those environments where they can really make a difference," Gee said. "In the last five years alone we’ve delivered over 300,000 meaningful interactions to patients, staff, and visitors throughout the VCU health system."
The free vaccines are distributed directly to the volunteers' primary care clinics.
"It goes to their veterinarians and so they can take their dogs to their own veterinarians thanks to Zoetis," Gee said.
While dogs and their owners take advantage of warm spring days outside, burning energy in parks across the city, researchers like Marconi spend those same days indoors in a lab setting protecting pets from pests. The CR-Lyme vaccine is used as a preventive measure nationwide and is highly effective in preventing the tick-borne illness.
"Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi and it is a bacteria that is transmitted to mammals through the bite of infected ticks," Marconi said. "Ticks will feed on us and transmit the bacteria from the ticks into individuals, dogs, humans, horses, wildlife etc."
Marconi hopes the initiative will raise awareness about the severity of tick-borne illnesses.
"Even in Virginia where Lyme is fairly significant highly endemic disease, awareness still needs to be raised about how significant the problem is. So we hope to call attention to that," Marconi said.
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