Post by bonnierin on Jan 7, 2012 0:41:42 GMT -5
what wyomama said about the life cycle and immunity is true. in our area, elk carry several nasty things they can transmit to cows, and are in all the fields except for hunting season, of course.
just remember, vaccines aren't a medicine like antibiotics or other drugs. a vaccine is introducing a low dose of dead or attenuated virus so that the animal's immune system can learn to recognize the disease and destroy the weakened or dead version. then, when the real threat comes along, the immunes cells will be prepared to attack and destroy it.
as far as i know, the controversy around animal vaccines concerns 2 things:
1) sometimes, the vaccines don't prevent the disease. this isn't because the vaccine "hurt" the animal, but because maybe the animal's immune system isn't strong or is compromised by something (stress like calving, or not enough food, or genetics, etc.), or the disease could have mutated slightly so the body doesn't recognize it as the same vaccine. this is why there's a new flu vaccine available every year--flu mutates really fast.
2) when vaccines were first introduced, the fluid the vaccine was in sometimes contained icky stuff like traces of mercury. fortunately that's not the case anymore (that would be really scary.).
i'm sure that with dogs and cats, we give vaccines more often than we might need to (the idea is to make sure the body is always able to recognize the virus, and able to attack it), but unlike antibiotics, there's not a resistance that's built up, since what is being activated is the body's own immune system.
personally, while i dislike using drugs, i don't mind vaccines--i like that rather than drugging my cows, the vaccine helps their own bodies to destroy disease.
just remember, vaccines aren't a medicine like antibiotics or other drugs. a vaccine is introducing a low dose of dead or attenuated virus so that the animal's immune system can learn to recognize the disease and destroy the weakened or dead version. then, when the real threat comes along, the immunes cells will be prepared to attack and destroy it.
as far as i know, the controversy around animal vaccines concerns 2 things:
1) sometimes, the vaccines don't prevent the disease. this isn't because the vaccine "hurt" the animal, but because maybe the animal's immune system isn't strong or is compromised by something (stress like calving, or not enough food, or genetics, etc.), or the disease could have mutated slightly so the body doesn't recognize it as the same vaccine. this is why there's a new flu vaccine available every year--flu mutates really fast.
2) when vaccines were first introduced, the fluid the vaccine was in sometimes contained icky stuff like traces of mercury. fortunately that's not the case anymore (that would be really scary.).
i'm sure that with dogs and cats, we give vaccines more often than we might need to (the idea is to make sure the body is always able to recognize the virus, and able to attack it), but unlike antibiotics, there's not a resistance that's built up, since what is being activated is the body's own immune system.
personally, while i dislike using drugs, i don't mind vaccines--i like that rather than drugging my cows, the vaccine helps their own bodies to destroy disease.