The American Association of Feline Practitioners was established in 1971 as an organization for veterinarians who have a special interest in feline medicine. In their wisdom, the founders set forth several objectives for the organization. The first two objectives are to endeavor to increase the knowledge of veterinarians in the field of feline medicine and surgery and to evaluate standards of feline medicine and surgery. It is through the contributions of this organization and its hard working members involved in carrying on its traditions, that these guidelines have been established. In the last few years, the division of the AAFP that has taken on the responsibility of increased academic pursuits is the Academy of Feline Medicine (AFM). Within the AFM, the Feline Practice Recommendations Committee succeeded in finding the people, money, time and location to make this happen. All of the AAFP and AFM Executive Board Members and Committee members should be recognized for their dedication to AAFP, this project, and to our patients, the cats.

The panel worked diligently to obtain the most current overview of the vaccine and immunological information possible. To that end, an extensive literature search and review was prepared thanks to Jeanne Pittari. In addition, the panel invited 13 speakers to contribute relevant information for the development of these guidelines. The speakers represented a broad spectrum of disciplines in veterinary medicine which included academia, industry, practice, veterinary law, practice management, governmental regulation (the USDA), and the AVMA. These speakers also were asked to review the prepared document and made many helpful contributions. Those speakers include:

• Tristram Carpenter, DVM ; Council of Biologics and Therapeutic Agents; American Veterinary Medical Association
• Duane Flemming, DVM, JD; Pleasant Hill, CA
• Michael Harrod, DVM; Synbiotics, Corp.
• David R. Hustead, DVM; Fort Dodge Animal Health
• Philip Kass, DVM, MPVM, MS, PhD; Department of Preventative Medicine; School of Veterinary Medicine; University of California -Davis
• Bruce Klink, VMD; Merial
• Nancy Postorino-Reeves, DVM, MS; Pfizer, Inc.
• Jerry F. Quinlan, DVM; Solvay Animal Health, Inc. ; Fort Dodge Animal Health
• Ronald D. Schultz, PhD; Department of Pathobiological Sciences; School of Veterinary Medicine; University of Wisconsin - Madison
• Fredric W. Scott, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVM; Former Director of Cornell Feline Health Center
• Richard L. Sharpee, PhD; Mallinkrodt, Inc.
• David Siev, DVM; USDA CVB
• Cynthia R. Wutchiett, CPA; C.R. Wutchiett & Assoc., Inc.

The guidelines were also reviewed by an additional group of respected veterinarians whose contributions have added perspective and meaning to the document. They include:

• Cynthia Bowlin, DVM; Cats Only Veterinary Clinic; Columbus, OH
• Susan Cotter, DVM, ACVIM; Tufts College; Northboro, MA
• Craig Greene, DVM ; University of Georgia; Athens, GA
• Julia Jenkins, VMD; Cat Hospital of Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA
• Mike Lappin, DVM ; Colorado State University; Fort Collins, CO
• Susan McDonough, VMD; Cat Hospital of Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA
• Barbara Stein, DVM; Chicago Cat Clinic; Chicago, IL
• Alice Wolf, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, Dipl. ABVP, Certified in Feline Practice; Professor, Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine; College Station, TX

The panel was chosen to include representatives from private practice, from academia, and from industry. This group of people worked hard and very cooperatively! A special thanks goes to all of them for helping make these guidelines possible. They continued to be involved from beginning to the end of the document, lending their support in every way. They are: representing private practice, Margie Scherk-Nixon and ourselves; from industry, David Hustead and David Rosen (the 3 practitioners and David Rosen are Diplomates of ABVP, Certified in Feline Practice); from academia, Richard Ford, Jim Richards, Director of Cornell Feline Health Center, and Fred Scott, virologist and former Director of Cornell Feline Health Center.

Our financial sponsor, Fort Dodge Animal Health deserves a tremendous amount of thanks and respect. In addition to their financial contributions, they worked to support us in developing these guidelines, while respecting the panel to function as an independent body having complete control over content. Within Fort Dodge, we would like to thank Arne Zislin for having the vision to see how important this issue is, and Martha Schmidt for the outstanding job she did to organize the panel and ease all the steps along the way to finalizing this document.

We would also like to thank each other for the numerous hours put forth working separately and together. This support was instrumental in the completion of these guidelines.

Last, but certainly not least, we would like to thank our families. Tom would like to thank his wife, Debbie, and children, Nathan, Devin, and Teal. Ilona would like to thank her husband, Barry Ganetzky, and daughter, Rebecca. We greatly appreciate our families' support and patience over the many months of work completing the Feline Vaccination Guidelines.

Tom Elston

Ilona Rodan