Poultry Vaccination #1: shooting for sound strategies
Sci-Tech
Agriculture
Poultry vaccination is used as a prevention and control strategy to minimise the emergence of clinical disease. If vaccination is not employed, there would be no control in the population. The same principles have been used to treat all species of domestic animals as well as humans for generations. The eradication of smallpox is a fantastic example of the role vaccines can play in eliminating disease.
Alongside biosecurity, livestock vaccination is a cornerstone of disease control on farms. Even so, there is no set vaccination programme for poultry farmers to employ as strategies are all dependent on local factors. These include the type of production, level of biosecurity, local disease patterns, maternal antibodies status, the availability of vaccines, and the potential economic loss if an outbreak were to happen.
Sometimes, a country-wide approach is necessary to ensure disease is successfully controlled. For example, Newcastle Disease is highly contagious and results in mild flu-like or conjunctivitis symptoms in humans. In birds, it can cause anything from flu-like symptoms to paralysis, drop in egg production, or even sudden death. It is spread when birds are moved around farms during the rearing and breeding process, making poultry vaccination extremely important to help prevent public and animal health issues. If the disease is not successfully controlled before it spreads to the rest of the flock, there is also a major risk to farming businesses, as the resulting loss of production can lead to a significant drop in profitability. All this means that Newcastle Disease is classified as a reportable disease and must be vaccinated against.
What poultry vaccination methods are there?
There are a number of poultry vaccination methods available. The techniques used are dependent on the age of the birds and the vaccine type being applied. Options include:
- Coarse spray: enables a large number of birds to be vaccinated using airborne droplets. This is particularly effective for vaccinating against respiratory diseases as the droplets can easily penetrate the birds’ respiratory systems.
- Water vaccination: useful for vaccinating a large number of birds at once. Involves dosing the drinking water system with the vaccine, which distributes it to the birds as they drink. One drawback is that it is impossible to know how much water each bird has drunk. They are therefore ingesting an unknown amount of vaccine.
- Vaccination using injections: each bird is individually vaccinated. Very labour intensive, so is only used for certain vaccine types when required.
What are the types of poultry vaccinations?
There are two types of poultry vaccines: live and inactivated vaccines. The table below compares the two:
| Focus | Live vaccines | Inactivated vaccines |
|---|---|---|
| Antigen requirement | Smaller quantity of antigen given, response relies on multiplication inside the bird | Large amount of antigen given, no multiplication required in the bird |
| Stability | Sensitive to chemicals and heat | Stable and easy to store |
| Cost and ease of administration | Relatively inexpensive, can be administered easily using drinking water or a spray | Expensive to produce, slow and labour intense as often administered individually |
| Additional conditions/treatment to improve effectiveness (adjuvating) | Not a common requirement | Adjuvating killed vaccines frequently necessary |
| Antibody response | Susceptible to existing antibodies present in birds (e.g maternal immunity) | More capable of eliciting an immune response in the presence of existing antibody |
| Immunity stability | Booster vaccination is ineffective in immune birds | An additional immune response is frequently seen in immune birds |
| Speed of immunity | Rapid onset | Slower onset |
The use of vaccination in poultry production (2006), S. Marangon and L. Busani. Rev. Sci.tech. Off .Int.Epiz., 26 (1), pp. 265-274.
What should I consider when vaccinating poultry?
When drinking water vaccination is being carried out, it is particularly important to ensure that the water is of potable quality and is free of contamination. If water is polluted, it will decrease the effectiveness of the vaccines which, in turn, can lead to reduced protection for the birds.
The several sanitisation products that are available on the market need to be used and neutralized effectively. For example, chlorine neutralisation failure could lead to live vaccine failure as the free chlorine can damage the vaccine and its efficacy.
Monitoring water in drinker lines is vital to safeguarding poultry health. For more information on the importance of ensuring good water quality for livestock, read my previous blog on the topic.
Sci-Tech’s UKAS accredited microbiological and serological analysis services cover all aspects of poultry, livestock and gamebird production. We have also recently successfully validated a Salmonella poultry vaccination differentiation test to distinguish between the presence of the Salmonella Enteritidis vaccine strain and a wild strain. To learn more about this, read part two of my blog.
To send in your samples for testing, contact us here.
References
The use of vaccination in poultry production (2006), S.Marangon and L.Busani. Rev.Sci.tech.Off .Int.Epiz., 26 (1), pp. 265-274.
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