What does the current AAHA feline vaccination guideline recommend for indoor vs outdoor cats?

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Accepted Answer

The 2020 AAHA/AAFP guidelines do not stratify core vaccine recommendations by indoor versus outdoor status — the core vaccine set is identical for all cats regardless of lifestyle. Feline calicivirus (FCV), feline herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1), feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), and rabies are core vaccines recommended for every cat.13 The rationale is that even strictly indoor cats face real exposure risk through veterinary clinic visits, contact with cats entering the household, and contaminated fomites introduced by humans.1 Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) vaccination is where lifestyle risk assessment most directly changes the protocol. FeLV is classified as a core vaccine for kittens regardless of lifestyle, but ongoing FeLV vaccination in adult cats is determined by individual risk assessment of exposure to infected cats.3 For adult cats with confirmed outdoor or multi-cat household exposure, continued FeLV vaccination is recommended; for genuinely low-risk adults, it is based on reassessment at each visit.3 The framework the guidelines use is exposure risk and exposure frequency, not a binary indoor/outdoor label. The most significant variable is the individual cat's likelihood of contact with other cats and feline infectious pathogens — not where the cat sleeps.1 Risk assessment variables include age and life stage, health status, agent exposure (geographic prevalence and housing), vaccination history, and immune status.1 For kitten series completion, FCV, FHV-1, and FPV revaccination is administered at 6 months of age, with the interval between initial series vaccines depending on the infectious disease, age at first vaccination, vaccine label, vaccine type (inactivated, modified live, or recombinant), and route of administration.3 Adult cats are revaccinated 12 months after the last dose in the kitten series, then annually for cats at high risk.3 For senior cats, the risk-benefit of vaccination should be carefully considered in light of overall health status, with FCV