DOGS, VACCINE AND AUTISM

On the 24th of this past April, the breakfast show “Good Morning Britain” tweeted the bizarre  request  to be contacted by “pet owners who haven't given their pets vaccinations because they're concerned about side effects - as well as people who have done so and now believe their pet has canine autism as a result”.   Such an odd request raised several remonstrations and criticisms, because “in a single tweet they managed to perpetuate the myth of a link between autism and vaccination, and the myth that autism is something that can be contracted. But even more than the harm this does to public health, the comparison between autistic people and poorly-trained pet dogs is immensely insulting and hurtful”.  The British Veterinary Association (BVA) immediately reacted with a tweeted statement “There's currently no reliable scientific evidence to indicate autism in dogs (or its link to vaccines). Potential side effects of vaccines are rare & outweighed by the benefits in protecting against disease”.  Yet, not all the experts share their views, for instance Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, book author, chair of the International Companion Animal Network, and founder of the International School for Canine Psychology and Behaviour, stated   “We don’t have scientific evidence to back claims of canine autism, however, we have seen anecdotal evidence of dogs having a marked change in their behaviour (‘canine dysfunctional behaviour’)”.

The notion of “canine autism” is not new, it dates to a paper “A syndrome in the dog resembling human infantile autism” published in 1966 on the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, by Dr. Michael W.Fox. British veterinarian and former vice president of the Humane Society of the United States,  one of the most influential animal protection organizations in the U.S. Dr. Fox is an expert in animal behaviour and passionate animal advocate. His scientific production is vast and assorted - ranging from animal rights to sustainable agriculture, to vegan cat foods –including also eccentric papers, such as one devoted to the evidence of the Oedipus complex in dogs.  Dr. Fox is also a prolific journalist.  As a columnist, he regularly collaborates to the Washington Post, where he publishes about post-traumatic stress disorders in cats,   obsessive-compulsive disorders and panic attacks in dogs, and so on.  Brief, Dr. Fox is not just a scientist, he has a mission,  "To help heal the broken bonds between my own species and other living beings and the natural environment for the good of all: One Earth, One Health."

However, notwithstanding Dr. Fox, it was only recently that the notion of “canine autism” became mainstream. In facts, searching “canine autism” on Google, one gets 11,500 results (the query “dog autism” gets many more results, which also include dog companions to assist autistic people, while “canine autism” is quite selective). Surprisingly enough, restricting the query to a smaller date range (from Jun 1966 – Fox’s paper publication -  to Jun 2014), one gets only 154 results. The remaining 11,150 results have been all produced in the last four years. What happened in 2014 to justify such an explosion of interest? On October 2014, Translational Psychiatry - a prominent academic journal, issued by the Nature group, with an impact factor of  5.601 and an article influence score of 1.943 -  published an original paper authored by a team of biologists, veterinarians, and psychiatrists, led by T.C. Theoharides, chair of the Department of Integrative Physiology and Pathobiology, at Tufts University School of Medicine.  The paper was devoted to comparing serum neurotensin and CRH levels in children with autistic spectrum disorders and tail-chasing Bull Terriers with a “phenotype similar to autism.” The paper goal was to propose a new animal model for human autism, more reliable than those based on mice and parrots. According to the team, Bull-Terriers affected by compulsory tail-chasing showed stereotypic movements very close to those exhibited by autistic children, as well as behavioural problems (aggression, seizures, fixed stare, and immobility) similar – authors claim - to behaviours characterising autistic spectrum disorders in children. Authors also suggest some biological markers, which would be shared by human and canine syndromes. Michael W.Fox, probably considered more an activist than a pure scientist, was not referenced in the bibliography, or otherwise mentioned, by the paper. Theoharides’  paper was a signal of the zeitgeist. Always in 2014, the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Massachusetts Medical School – in collaboration with the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center,  the  American Humane Association, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute – launched the research project “Canines, Kids and Autism”, involving both dogs and children, with the primary aim to investigate the causes of obsessive-compulsive disorders in dogs, “in hopes of pinpointing those genes that might be responsible for atypical behaviors” in dogs and autistic children.

So, the notion of “canine autism” grew in popularity and captured the imagination of general press, social media, and, presumably, pet owners. Finally, in 2017, a “pet anti-vax movement” also emerged,  becoming soon in fashion among  Brooklynites: more and more, in New York, “the young and the hip are refusing to vaccinate their dogs against such potentially lethal diseases as distemper, hepatitis and rabies, because vaccines absolutely, positively cause autism”. From New York, the “pet anti-vax movement” spread in the U.S.  and now also in the UK. Dr. Amy Ford of the Veterinarian Wellness Center of Boerum Hill, one the most reputed animal hospitals in  Brooklyn, said: “We do see a higher number of clients who don’t want to vaccinate their animals, this may be stemming from the anti-vaccine movement, which people are applying to their pets.” Most commentators used the same argument to explain the “pet anti-vax movement.”  They are only partly right.

There is no doubt that anti-vaccine movement deeply influenced (and took advantage) of the urban myth of “canine autism,” but – as I pointed out – such a myth was fuelled, if not created, by distinguished medical and academic institutions. Even more seriously, these scholars implicitly supported the anti-vax movements. The first lines of 2014 Theoharides’ paper are appalling, notably if one considers that they were published by a journal ranked 22/142 in Psychiatry: “Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders (…)Fifty percent of such children regress at 2–3 years of age, often after a specific event such as reaction to vaccination, infection,  trauma, environmental toxins or stress (…) Recent evidence suggests that ASD involve some defective immune responses in many ASD patients and their relatives,  as well as some neuroimmune component, especially allergic-like symptoms”. As far as this author knows, no one in the academic world has ever protested against such a grave, misleading, statement.  Admittedly, this silence is more perturbing than anti-vaxxer barks.