The use of vaccination in emergency animal disease responses

The author discusses the potential of vaccination to assist in the management and eradication of emergency animal diseases (EADs), as a complementary measure to either minimise the scale of, or to avoid, stamping out. Vaccination is only one of many tools available for disease control, especially for EADs. The decision on whether to use a vaccine in the face of an outbreak can be controversial, as policy-makers in the United Kingdom found during the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001. The advantages, disadvantages and limitations of using vaccination are discussed, as are strategies for EAD vaccination and the importance of contingency planning. The author identifies the potential for vaccines to lead to various problems, including encouraging genetic drift in field strains of pathogens, the risk of reassortment with naturally occurring pathogens, or the creation of a carrier state in an infected animal.