Will Falconer, DVM Moderator
My concern, too, Darci, and one that's going to take some pointed and repeated education to overcome. I see titers as very much a starting place, not an end. They tell us too limited a story.
I suppose CMI testing could become a salable product at a price more affordable than at present. Certainly many things have gone that route. Right now, it's a cell culture, and an in vitro test, so not accessible to any labs but those capable of growing cell cultures, a pretty high level lab.
One hope I have is that the RCF study data will be strong enough to prove that a titer falling off precedes a fall in CMI by a set number of years, say 10 more. If there are strong data to prove something like this, we'd have a foot in the door for regulatory folks to back off substantially. I'm not sure how long data will be gathered on these dogs, though. And if a lack of CMI test at a certain point will still be somewhat like a titer: it may not tell us the immunity is truly gone.
Guess we'll have to wait and see what comes of the study and go from there. Still, hopeful times are afoot.