Read all vaccine labels thoroughly before administration. Bacterial Vaccines B acterial vaccines which contain bacterial organisms are known as 'bacterins'. Most bacterins commonly used in the animal health industry are inactivated or killed bacterins. One notable exception to this is the brucellosis or bangs vaccine which is a live bacterin. Lepto is an example of a killed bacterin, and like the killed viral vaccines, booster vaccinations are critical to keep the resistance levels adequately high enough to protect.
Bacterial infections create illnesses primarily by producing toxins or poisons.
Viruses, on the other hand, create illness by destroying the cells in the body that they have invaded. Too often a disease outbreak is blamed on the vaccine when the real culprit is a breach in management or biosecurity procedures. Pictured here, Dr. Gregory Quakenbush, D.V.M,.Technical Services, Pfizer Animal Health Toxoids are vaccines which contain the inactivated bacterial toxin or poison which ultimately causes the illness and damage of a bacterial infection. Many bacterial vaccines are a combination of both bacterins and toxoids. Antitoxins or antiserum are not really vaccines, but rather the antibodies against specific toxins which have been harvested from the immune serum from another animal.