Special Issues around Veterinary Vaccines

The majority of vaccines licensed for controlling infectious disease of veterinary species today are based on technology that was introduced by Jenner using live vaccines and Pasteur using killed whole organism vaccines 200 and 100 years ago, respectively, yet this former technology has not stopped several successful vaccination programs from being developed. Much of veterinary vaccinology is driven by the realities that exist in raising production animals or working in veterinary practice, where making a living depends on keeping the animals healthy, because it is an industry where vaccines are like insurance policies—protection from events that one hopes never happen. For example, the USDA recognizes these varying levels of protection in the way that they allow label claims: (1) “aids in disease control,” (2) “for the prevention of disease,” and (3) “for the prevention of infection.” Additionally there may be indirect protection, or herd immunity, that results from vaccination of sufficient numbers of animals in a given population resulting in the reduction of the ability of a disease to transmit through the vaccinated individuals. The perception that vaccines provide sterilizing immunity, where the disease agent does not establish an infection, while widely held, is generally unfounded and largely unrealistic. Recent advances, especially in the last 15 years in genomics, proteomics, biotechnology, immunology, pathogenesis, and vaccine formulation and delivery have dramatically changed our approach to vaccine development. When used optimally, vaccines have been shown to prevent disease, reduce the need for pharmaceutical intervention, and improve the health and welfare of animals, and indirectly people as well. The challenge in developing an optimal vaccination program is in dealing with the great diversity that exists within the animal world, and as such there probably is no single optimal program for all occasions. While there is no magic solution to optimizing vaccination programs for animals, nonetheless, a solid understanding of the animal’s innate and environmental risk factors as well as the variables such as stress will enable the development of tailored vaccination schedules that best meets the needs of the animal. The use of vaccines in animal health is not restricted to the protection of morbidity and mortality of the animal hosts themselves, but they are regularly employed as key elements in public health programs. When appropriate biopreparedness, management modeling strategies, and contingency plans of the future are linked with (1) protective DIVA vaccines against zoonoses, (2) effective predictive modeling, and (3) deployable implementation policies, control, and prevention of serious zoonotic diseases of man and animals will become more achievable at local, state, and national levels.