Vaccinations

 The purpose of a vaccine depends of the animal it is given to, if a companion animal receives a vaccine it is generally for its own health, whereas livestock will receive vaccines so they have an increased chance of surviving to make money for the farmer and provide humans with food (Meeusen et al., 2007).

For companion animals there are core and non-core vaccines that can be given, examples of core vaccines are canine adenovirus vaccine, rabies virus vaccine and feline parvovirus while examples of non-core vaccines are leptospira vaccine, chlamydia felis vaccine and borrelia vaccine- the difference between these are that core vaccines are essential while non-core vaccines can be given based on the animals’ location or lifestyle (Day, 2017).

A variety of diseases can affect UK livestock therefore vaccinations are available for most of them such as bluetongue and leptospirosis and can be administered either routinely, in the case of an emergency outbreak or to also vaccinate surrounding wildlife as a way to prevent them passing on the disease to livestock (Houses of Parliament, 2013).

Vaccines are tested before being released to ensure they are mostly safe and efficient, however there are still risks- mainly adverse reactions they can cause and occasionally a lack of capability to protect the animal at all (Rashid et al., 2009). Adverse reactions can range from fever and vomiting to even anaphylaxis and death but this is generally sue to an allergic reaction to the injection or it not being administered properly, however a vaccine being unable to protect an animal can be due to a mishandling of the vaccination prior to administration and during administration or that the animal (such as some breeds of dog) are just more vulnerable to disease with or without the vaccine (Rashid et al., 2009).

To summarise, vaccinations is a preventative treatment method that protects animals from otherwise life threatening disease, with risks that are unlikely to happen (Barrett, 2016).

References:

Barrett, A. D. T., 2016. Vaccinology in the twenty-first century. Nature Partner Journals: Vaccines, [Online]. Volume 1, Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/npjvaccines20169 [Accessed 8 January 2018].

Day, M. J., 2017. Small Animal Vaccination: A practical guide for vets in the U.K.. In Practise, [Online]. Volume 39, p110-118. Available at: http://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/Small%20animal%20vaccination-%20a%20practical%20guide%20for%20vets%20in%20the%20UK.%20Michael%20J%20Day.pdf [Accessed 13 January 2018].

Houses of parliament, 2013. Livestock Vaccines. POSTnote, [Online]. Volume 433, p1-4. Available at: http://www.ifst.org/sites/default/files/Livestock%20Vaccines-PN-433_0.pdf [Accessed 13 January 2018].

Meeusen, Els N. T.; Walker, J.; Peters, A.; Pastoret, P.P.; Jungerson, G.; 2007. Current status of veterinary vaccines. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, [Online]. Volume 20 (part 3), p489-510. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1932753/ [Accessed 13 January 2018]. 

Rashid, A.; Rasheed, K.; Asim, M.; Hussain, A.; 2009. Risks of vaccination: A review. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, [Online]. Volume 15 (Part 1), p19-27. Available at: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-91992009000100003 [Accessed 13 January 2018]