Vaccines for the Skin and Mammary Gland of Ruminants

For many infectious diseases of ruminants vaccination is a feasible and desirable alternative to therapy. Vaccines that result in elevated herd immunity and disease prevention have important advantages in terms of cost effectiveness, animal welfare, and reduction of the environmental contamination that occurs when animals are treated with drugs and chemicals. Currently on the market are many efficacious and successful vaccines for ruminant diseases, but there are very few vaccines available for diseases of the mammary gland and skin. Undoubtedly the diseases that are easiest to control by vaccination have already been conquered; it is equally true that at the time such vaccines were developed the process was not easy! In the 1990s we have at our disposal new technologies such as molecular engineering and peptide synthesis. These technologies have dramatically improved our ability to synthesize usable quantities of antigens, yet many economically important diseases of the skin and mammary gland remain intractable. In this chapter we review progress that has been made with vaccines against such diseases and try to identify areas that may be profitable for future research endeavours.