Animal vaccines: basic principles

Published on November 28, 2019   27 min

A selection of talks on Plant & Animal Sciences

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0:00
Howdy. My name is Ian Tizard and I am a professor of Immunology at Texas A&M University. My subject of interest is animal vaccines, and I'm going to talk today about the basic features of these vaccines. As you know, vaccines have been in the news a lot recently because people are resisting vaccination. But, the fact remains that they're the best, in many cases, the only way of combating infectious diseases. This applies equally to animals as it does to humans. There are a lot of nasty diseases out there that will affect our pets and our livestock, and we need to prevent them.
0:44
So, let me just summarize a little bit about the history of animal vaccines. They were first discovered by Louis Pasteur, the great French scientist in the 1880s. He invented a number of animal vaccines and they've been progressively improved since then. People have worked on them constantly. Likewise, they're very carefully regulated and as a result, they're very safe, indeed. One should have minimal concerns about the safety of these vaccines and they are essential if you're going to keep your pet healthy. In some situations like some livestock industries, there is total dependence on vaccines, especially in intensive livestock operations like the swine, poultry, and aquaculture industries. The other important thing to remember about vaccines right now is that they are a counter to antibiotic resistance, which is growing constantly.

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