Autogenous Vaccines for Cattle
Custom vaccines are available if needed for particular regional strains.
Autogenous vaccines are custom-made vaccines (often called a herd-specific vaccine), utilizing a pathogen that a veterinarian isolates from an animal or several animals within that herd. The pathogen sample is sent to a laboratory that cultures and grows it, creating the vaccine specifically for that herd. There are a number of reasons that autogenous vaccines may be needed. Due to high costs of research and development, there may not be a vaccine for a certain pathogen that only exists in one region of the country or affects only a small segment of the livestock industry.
Gary Spina, national sales manager for Hygieia Biological Laboratories in Woodland, Calif., says his company creates a variety of autogenous vaccines for livestock.
“We offer autogenous pinkeye vaccines and occasionally salmonella. Those are the two main ones in beef cattle and dairy. If something else comes up that they are not being protected against, if we have the means to grow the bacteria or the viruses, we can do it,” he says.
For instance, some ranchers have problems in calves with Clostridium perfringens causing acute toxic gut infections. C. perfringens types C and D are readily prevented by vaccination, either with a specific commercial vaccine or included in the combination toxoid products (seven-way or eight-way vaccines that include blackleg, redwater, malignant edema and other clostridial diseases), but there are some other types that are not included in the commercial vaccines.
There has been a vaccine against type A, and it is sometimes still available, but there are a few other types that occasionally cause serious problems. The only way to protect against those is with autogenous vaccines, he says.
“We work with Clostridium quite frequently, so that is something we can do to help cattle producers if they are interested,” Spina says. The producers can work with their veterinarians to obtain an accurate diagnosis and samples for the lab.
“If a herd has a pinkeye issue, the producer’s veterinarian will take a swab from an infected eye to send to the lab for culture,” he says, noting the lab typically finds Moraxella bovis, but it often finds M. bovoculi, which is not in the commercial vaccine. “I make a number of vaccines that include both bovoculi and bovis or bovoculi only — whatever is needed in that particular herd.”
If a producer is thinking about using an autogenous vaccine, it is important to get ahead of the game and start working on it before the disease is going through the herd. The vaccine needs to be created and administered to the animals, allowing enough time for them to start developing immunity.
“Vaccines are not drugs. They are working on the animal’s own immune system (to build resistance to the pathogen), which is not instantaneous. You give them one shot, and follow it up with a booster,” Spina notes. The first one just alerts the immune system, and it’s the second injection that stimulates the body to build immunity.
“That second shot creates what is called an anamnestic response to gain peak immunity. The duration of immunity is based on how high you get that response,” explains Spina. This immunity will wane over time, so the higher you get it in the beginning, the longer it will take to drop to the point it is no longer protective.
The minimum order for an autogenous bacterin is one 250 cc bottle. Depending on the dose size, this may be 50, 125 or 250 doses.
“The cost of the vaccine varies with the difficulty of propagation and number of strains involved. For instance, E. coli, salmonella and staphylococcus bacterins are typically cheaper than hemophilus and mycoplasma strains. A preliminary estimate is discussed with the veterinarian before the initial culture is performed. Final cost and delivery estimates are provided after determining what is involved in propagating the strain for manufacture,” says Spina.
Editor’s Note: Heather Smith Thomas is a cattlewoman and freelance writer from Salmon, Idaho.