EDITORIAL 41: Criteria for the selection of vaccines
The cyclical appearance of news about dog rabies, avian flu or swine flu, to give some examples, periodically reactive the discussion on the suitability of systematically vaccinating of animals and people. In this regard it should be noted the impact of that legislation that limits or prohibits the use of vaccines for certain diseases.
Aside from ideological and demagogic discussions that favor someone but not most, we consider to be observed that the focus should be on three aspects:
(1) Application of Koch’s postulates as a selection criteria.
(2) Use of inactivated vaccines.
(3) Economic and health implications.
The Koch’s postulates establish the conditions for an organism to be considered the cause of a disease (1.To be isolated from a sick or dead animal, 2. Produce the disease when inoculated into a healthy animal of the same species and 3. Be isolated in this second animal without other accompanying microorganisms).
In our opinion most currently microorganisms that are isolated from diseased animals in livestock and poultry companies do not meet these postulates as its pathogenicity is more related to multiple passes in immunocompromised animals, by environmental conditions and mycotoxins, which to their own genetic ability of microorganisms to produce disease.
The use of inactivated vaccine is neither dangerous to public health or animal as dead microorganisms can not transmit diseases.
In contrast the use of attenuated vaccines are freeing to the field live microorganisms whose pathogenicity (attenuated in the laboratory) can be reversed under field conditions after a number of passes, enough, in healthy animals.
The prevalence of salmonellosis is a clamorous example of the failure of this hypotheses that can not be elucidated arguing that the absence of antibodies guarantees a certain health status.
Addition to these three relevant considerations we could add a fourth. Unless the epidemiological and pathogenicity studies indicate that it is a new disease, experience shows that when something is prohibited
there are always unscrupulous isolated or as organized network, to call elegantly trying to convince people of the appearance of new diseases caused by microorganisms exotic or recombinations of actually existing microorganisms that do not present a real danger.
Therefore, from this editorial we focus on the massive use of inactivated vaccines using microorganisms that comply Koch’s postulates and covering the real needs of economic and health technicians poultry and livestock farms. This would avoid the appearance of immune islands of unprotected animals, and probably slow the “onset of disease- ups”.