Monoclonal antibody technology in the development of vaccines for livestock parasites

Vaccination against animal parasites offers an alternative to chemotherapy for the control of losses due to morbidity and mortality. However, only a few vaccines are currently available, and these are based on controlled infections with living parasites. Further advancement in the development of defined vaccines against parasite infections has been hindered by incomplete knowledge of the immunological relationship between the host and the parasite. The advent of monoclonal antibody technology has provided a powerful new tool for the identification and isolation of parasite antigens. Exploitation of this technique in veterinary parasitology has greatly facilitated progress toward the development of vaccines against several animal parasites.