Sheep Vaccinations

Simply put

I am not in the habit of debating the usefulness or not usefulness of the tools we have available as shepherds. There is no one-size-fits-all flock regiment. There is one vaccine that is widely considered “core” in sheep (and goats) that is a vaccine nearly all flocks can benefit from. There are several others available that may or may not be a good fit for your context: your goals, production/pet/show status, geographic area, etc. Hopefully this little ditty will introduce you to what is available *

What are vaccines?

A vaccine is a prepared substance that, when injected into an animal (human or otherwise), causes an immune response to a specific infectious agent (bacteria, virus, etc). Killed (inactivated) vaccines are those made with a dead version of the infectious agent. Modified live (live-attenuated) vaccines use a live version of the bacteria, virus, etc. which has been modified by scientists to no longer cause disease while still causing the necessary immune response. A toxoid vaccine is one that uses an inactivated toxin produced by the infectious agent to build immunity to that toxin rather than the microbe itself.

Examples of products that are commonly referred to as vaccines but are NOT vaccines are