Wilson College Rabies Vaccination Policy

Our Veterinary Nursing program has full accreditation status as granted by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities (CVTEA). An advantage to our program is the numerous opportunities students have for hands-on care and learning using a variety of animals from exotics to farm animals and small animals. Subject to the requirements of this policy, students are allowed access to the animals housed at our Veterinary Nursing Barn, our state-of-the-art Veterinary Education Center, and our laboratory animal facility. 

As of January 1, 2022, new regulatory standards were set forth by the American Veterinary Medical Association in adherence to the recommendations by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) regarding pre-exposure Rabies vaccination. https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/prevention/pre-exposure_vaccinations.html (updated May 4, 2022)

“The majority of people in the United States have a low risk of coming in contact with the rabies virus. However, a small subset has a higher level of risk, such as those who work directly with animals that could have rabies, or those who travel to parts of the world where rabies is common and access to medical care is limited. These people should receive rabies preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a series of 2 rabies vaccine doses (Day 0 and Day 7) given before coming into contact with the rabies virus.”

Following the above CDC standard and subsequent changes in American Veterinary Medical Association CVTEA accreditation policies and procedures in January 2024 (https://www.avma.org/education/center-for-veterinary-accreditation/comm…), Wilson College has reviewed the risk of rabies exposure in our area as well as statewide and its vaccination policy. In following with the CDC and AVMA CVTEA guidance, in addition to the need for students to be vaccinated to complete their required internships and courses without limitations, we have determined that rabies vaccinations will be mandatory for ALL students by February 1st of the calendar year they plan to enroll in VMT221: Clinical Practices II. This course is typically taken in the fall semester during the junior year of enrollment at Wilson College. If courses are taken out of normal sequence, students must be fully vaccinated for rabies before also enrolling in their internship (VMT 355) and surgical nursing (VMT 415). Unvaccinated students will NOT be permitted to enroll in these courses, complete internships for course credit, or have access to live animals. This may delay or inhibit the student from graduation. For more information about rabies and the rabies vaccine, please see the Resources listed below.

The best way for students to comply with this mandate is to receive their vaccine series through their regular health care provider. By doing so, their health insurance is more likely to cover the cost of the vaccination as veterinary nursing students are in a Risk 3 category for Rabies. 
 

Tammy Ege, MS, CVT
Associate Professor, Chair of Veterinary Nursing
717-264-4149
tege@wilson.edu

Resources:
•    AMVA – Rabies: https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/one-health/rabies 
•    World Health Organization – Vaccinations and Immunizations, Rabies: https://www.who.int/teams/control-ofneglected-tropical-diseases/rabies/…;
•    PA Department of Agriculture – Diseases, Rabies
https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Animals/AHDServices/diseases/Pages/Rabie…;
•    CDC – Rabies: https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/index.html