Experimental observations on prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination against foot-rot in sheep

Authors: Skerman TM, Cairney IM
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 20, Issue 11, pp 205-211, Nov 1972
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep
Subject Terms: Animal remedies/veterinary medicines, Bacterial, Biosecurity, Disease control/eradication, Epidemiology, Hoof/claw, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Limb - lower, Immune system/immunology, Locomotor, Treatment/therapy, Vaccination
Article class: Scientific Article

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Abstract: Egerton and Roberts ROPERTS (1971) reported that vaccines prepared from Bacteroides nodosus (Beveridge) Mraz et al had both protective and curative effects on foot-rot induced artificially in penned sheep. Similar results were obtained in experiments on Australian properties when vaccinated sheep were exposed to natural infection (Egerton and Burrell, 1970). These findings have revived interest in the application of immunological methods to the inveterate problem of foot-rot control, an approach that had formerly been regarded as unfeasible (Beveridge, 1941). Before a systematic evaluation of the practical significance of vaccination could be attempted, a suitable means for preparing effective vaccines on a large scale was required. Egerton and his co-workers formulated vaccines from cells of B. nodosus that had been grown on solidified or biphasic culture media containing particulate ovine hoof material, but these methods are not applicable to bulk vaccine production. Reproducible methods have been developed for cultivating New Zealand isolates of B. nodosus in liquid media, but it remained to be established whether the products of such cultures possess immunological activity of the type demonstrated by Egerton and Burrell (1970). This paper describes the results of experiments to determine the protective and curative effects of vaccines prepared from local strains of B. nodosus cultured by the simplified techniques. A preliminary account of some of these results has been published (Skerman, 1971).

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