Foreword
Agriculture and livestock farming in the UK is undergoing a series of major changes that will have significant impact on its future. This is an exciting time for English farming. The introduction of a new system that rewards farmers and land managers while delivering additional public goods that improve the environment gives us an opportunity to help make farming more productive, competitive and sustainable. These changes provide positive opportunities to evolve, to ensure livestock farming is fit for the future that lies ahead.
Despite the unpredictability of livestock farming, there is potential for the sector to evolve with a renewed focus and prioritisation on protecting the health and welfare of livestock, whilst delivering substantial valued public goods, including environmental and welfare benefits. We recognise how important it is that policies and new programmes are implemented in a way whereby farmers and the wider industry have the tools to adapt and thrive. This is why we are working closely with industry to codesign solutions that improve resilience to threats and ensure opportunities can be realised.
The support that is part of the forthcoming Animal Health and Welfare Pathway is a good example of what industry and government can achieve when working together. Vaccination is a key tool in disease reduction, prevention and control. By encouraging a progressive livestock vaccination strategy across the UK, as part of a wider set of co-ordinated measures to improve the health status of the national herd and flock, we can support and further improve UK animal health and welfare standards.
At the same time, we can contribute positively to One Health, including Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), to sustainable livestock farming, environmental management, and food security. A vibrant agricultural sector – built on resilience – produces safe, high-quality and nutritious food that helps to secure sustainable food production, bolsters national food security, and enhances economic growth. At the very centre of this is a step change towards a truly preventative health model that places a renewed emphasis on population risk, whilst realising the clear benefits of implementing national improvements.
The Livestock Vaccination Guideline sets out a vision and a blueprint for how vets, SQPs/RAMAs, farmers and policy makers can be supported through guidelines for priority diseases, where vaccination plays a key role in reduction, prevention and control. The objective at the very core of this strategy is to challenge the status quo with a forward-thinking framework that can stimulate meaningful progress in the form of greater farm resilience, and sustainable improvements in efficiency and productivity across the UK. Vaccination has an important role to play, along with good management, husbandry, nutrition and biosecurity. It can play a fundamental role in catalysing the change needed to support farm businesses and position the UK as an international brand for excellence in animal health and welfare, as well as sustainable food production.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate works closely with NOAH and the pharmaceutical industry on the regulation of veterinary medicines to ensure availability of good quality, safe and efficacious vaccines on the UK market. Livestock vaccination plays a crucial part in the future of UK farming and as Minister for Rural Affairs, Access to Nature and Biosecurity, I fully support our excellent, innovative, and world-leading animal health industry as they drive forward this important livestock vaccination initiative.
Lord Benyon Minister for Rural Affairs, Access to Nature and Biosecurity
Highlights
The dairy, beef and sheep sections of this report set out in detail the background and rationale for vaccination. A categorisation tool to prioritise and review vaccination strategies is proposed and illustrated in Table 1. This applies across a range of priority diseases and conditions and can be used to review current vaccination strategies on farm to enable effective decision making. Table 2 provides an overview of the Category One, highest priority vaccinations for the dairy, beef and sheep sectors.
The aim is to help deliver maximum benefit on farm that translates to benefits for animal health and welfare and sustainable farming across the UK.
Introduction
Vaccination is an integral part of progressive preventative herd and flock health management. It sits within a toolbox of measures, which include good biosecurity and nutrition, to effectively prevent or control disease on farm. This paper provides vaccination guidelines to support vets, Suitably Qualified Persons (SQPs)/Registered Animal Medicines Advisors (RAMAs) and farmers to manage the health and welfare of sheep and cattle.
The three sections in this report; namely dairy, beef, and sheep, can be read independently. Each provides a distillation of veterinary clinical experience and research to demonstrate current thinking on a proactive approach to vaccination. The overall aim of this report is to encourage best practice and discussion between vets and farmers to apply effective vaccinations strategies on farm. The fundamentals of how vaccines work, and how to get the most from them, should be kept in mind. Vaccines help reduce the incidence of disease by stimulating the immune system to provide protection. The aim of any vaccination policy, in any species, is to challenge the individual with a “controlled” dose to stimulate an immune reaction that will prime the animal’s immune system to respond quickly and effectively to any future field challenge.
Figure 1: the sustainable livestock health and welfare balance
Thus, vaccination is designed to prevent/ reduce future disease, clinical signs or impact on production; it will not necessarily prevent future infection. Additionally, the immune system is highly complex and its ability to function to its full potential can be compromised in several ways. Certain viruses, mycoplasmas, etc, can influence this response as can deficiencies in essential nutrients. The immune system of animals in poor body condition, lacking in essential micro-nutrients, or suffering from stress or concurrent disease rarely responds fully to exposure to a challenge, whether that is from an invading pathogen or to a vaccine. Preventing and protecting livestock against harmful, production limiting, or zoonotic disease has obvious benefits. In addition, as shown in Figure 1, an effective and progressive vaccination strategy also contributes positively towards ‘One Health’ (an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems), including Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), and to sustainable livestock farming, environmental management, and food security. An industry-wide strategic approach to vaccination can improve resilience and deliver these additional benefits on farm and across the UK.
Read the rest of the report here: https://www.noah.co.uk/wp-content/u...vestock-Vaccination-Guideline-August-2022.pdf
