Animal Vaccines: Safeguarding Livestock and Pets for a Healthier Future
Animal vaccines play a crucial role in maintaining the health of livestock, pets, and wildlife, while also protecting public health and the agricultural economy. By preventing infectious diseases in animals, vaccines reduce mortality, enhance productivity, and limit the spread of zoonotic diseases—those that can be transmitted from animals to humans. Over the past decades, advances in veterinary medicine and biotechnology have made animal vaccines more effective, safer, and widely accessible.
Vaccines work by stimulating an animal’s immune system to recognize and fight specific pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Unlike treatments that combat disease after infection, vaccines act proactively to build immunity, reducing the severity of illness or preventing it altogether. Common forms of animal vaccines include live-attenuated vaccines, inactivated (killed) vaccines, subunit vaccines, and newer DNA or recombinant vaccines, each tailored to specific types of pathogens and animal species.