A Primer on Livestock Vaccines

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Before you administer any livestock vaccines, colostrum — a mother's first milk — is the best passive immunity medicine for newborns.
Before you administer any livestock vaccines, colostrum — a mother's first milk — is the best passive immunity medicine for newborns.
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Many critters — such as this restrained young pig — should start receiving immunizations at an early age before their maternally given resistance have begun to wear off.
Many critters — such as this restrained young pig — should start receiving immunizations at an early age before their maternally given resistance have begun to wear off.
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A goat gets a subcutaneous (Sub-Q) injection.
A goat gets a subcutaneous (Sub-Q) injection.
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You can give many poultry vaccines by adding the medicines to the birds' feed or water. (Find out how to properly administer each medication.
You can give many poultry vaccines by adding the medicines to the birds' feed or water. (Find out how to properly administer each medication.

Long ago, some observant folks noticed that people who caught certain diseases (such as smallpox) — and lived through the illnesses — never again came down with that same condition. Drs. Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur later put that principle to work by creating the vaccine … a medicine that, because it gives a person a slight case of a particular disease, actually encourages his or her body’s natural defense system to develop resistance to any subsequent attack of the ailment. Ever since such preventive medications were put into widespread use, the incidence of many serious human illnesses (including smallpox, diptheria, and polio) has been greatly reduced.

Scientists have created vaccines for many livestock diseases, too. (Indeed, the root word for vaccine, vacca, means cow in Latin and reflects the fact that the first inoculation was derived from the organism which caused cowpox.)

And today, such defense builders are vital aids to anyone who wants to raise healthy livestock. These “miracle” medicines do create one problem, however: There are so darned many vaccines (all wrapped up with big three-dollar names, to boot) that the average beast keeper can hardly make sense of the subject!

I’ve written the following primer on livestock vaccines in order to
clear up some of the confusion surrounding this topic. In this article,

  • Published on Nov 1, 1980
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