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Before you gather your calves, there is some important information about vaccines you should know that could affect the way you work your livestock, and more importantly, how you handle the vaccines. First, let's start with a little vaccine short-course. There are a lot of ways to classify vaccines. Type, origin, what they do and technical and practical terms come to mind. The term biological products includes vaccines (modified live and killed viral products) and bacterins. Generally, the term vaccine refers to products used to prevent or reduce severity of disease caused by viral pathogens (viruses that cause sickness). Bacterin refers to products used to prevent or reduce severity of diseases caused by bacterial pathogens (bacteria that cause sickness).
Killed products use a large dose (in terms of bacterial or viral particles in the vaccine dose, not in the actual amount of vaccine you give), usually have an adjuvant in them (adjuvants help to turn on the immune response), and don't reproduce in the animal. Either way, the goal is to get the animal disease resistant. Vaccination Program None of us would think of going out to do a day's work without picking the best mount we had for the specific job ahead. The same is true for biological products. Selection of the right product to use depends on the individual situation. The need for different vaccine products depends on assessment of risk of disease, economic benefit and management situation. A lot of factors fit into this, and it just makes good sense to get some help in making these decisions. Looking back over my short and colorful career as a stocker pasture operator (this was before vet school), I can promise you that if I'd used a good veterinarian to advise me on managing health, I'd more likely still be in that business. Somebody said once that the man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. I think you get the idea. Vaccine programs probably should be reassessed constantly, since class and origin of cattle, seasons, market conditions, disease incidence, and treatment response are never static, but a moving target. When ole Bessie has three feet in the grave and one on a banana peel, it is a little late to call Doc for help. Get your veterinarian involved on the front end, and on a regular basis. If there isn't somebody in your area interested in cattle practice, look for somebody in the region, or even outside the region. I'll bet very few of you do your own income taxes, yet you'll be reluctant to ask for help on animal health issues from a veterinarian. I'll lay you odds that you have a lot more money tied up in cattle than what your tax liability is for a year. How to Care for Vaccines When it comes to caring for your vaccines, there is a definite right and wrong way to go about it. Modified Live Vaccines (MLV) are relatively fragile. They are very sensitive to light, disinfectants, detergents, heat and time. Manufacturers and distributors of animal health products are very careful to see that these biological products get to you in good condition. You're spending good money for those products, so it makes good cowboy sense to keep them in condition. Keep vaccines stored at the temperature indicated on the label (generally 35 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit). Keep a refrigerator thermometer in the fridge. It costs $3 or $4, and I'll bet you keep a hundred times that amount in vaccines in the fridge sometime during the year. Protect these products from direct sunlight for as long as you can. Keeping them in a cooler should take care of that, and if you throw in some ice or ice packs, you'll tend to the temperature consideration at the same time. Be sure that the syringes you use for MLV products don't have disinfectant, soap residue or gyp/hard water residue in them. I recommend a final rinse with sterile water or distilled water. Syringes and other instruments can be sterilized by boiling them or by placing them disassembled, in a pressure cooker for 15 to 20 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure. Now I saved the best for last: time. Once you mix MLV products, they will retain full efficacy for about an hour, and then they begin to decline. By two hours after mixing under field conditions, those bugs are feeling pretty sick. So, my rule is simple: mix MLV products as you need them, write the time of mixing on the label, and don't use them beyond one hour post mixing. For sure, don't put partial bottles back in the fridge for tomorrow. Instead, buy some 10 dose tanks to fill in the small numbers between the 50s so you don't have to pitch so many doses. Article courtesy of Fort Dodge Animal Health. |
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