Vaccines for Animals and People Vaccination to prevent disease is routine today for cattle, poultry, companion animals, and people. The knowledge gained from vaccination of animals helps improve human health, and vice versa. The typical human vaccine for tuberculosis, BCG, was derived from a related disease organism in cows. A new, experimental, genetically engineered TB vaccine uses isolated proteins from the BCG bacteria. Lacking live bacteria, this vaccine, if effective, would avoid risks and other shortcomings of the BCG vaccine.
New developments are also underway in vaccines for malaria, chicken pox, whooping cough, and cancer.
Currently researchers are seeking to develop genetically altered plants that could provide immunity to infectious diseases. Studies have already shown that genetically engineered plants can act as a vaccine, causing an immunological response in mice that have eaten these plants. Plants acting as vaccines would offer the advantage of being inexpensive to produce, and thus they could more easily be made available to developing countries. In addition, contamination with animal viruses would be eliminated, since cultured cells would not be used in the production process. Many of the quality control tests that require animals also could be eliminated.