The manufacture of veterinary clostridial vaccines

Abstract

Clostridial vaccines are commonly used in most countries where farming of cattle, sheep, goats and horses occurs on a commercial scale. Vaccines to protect against clostridial diseases make up the second largest group of ruminant vaccines sold globally. In Australia the sales value of these vaccines makes up $46m of the $96m sheep and cattle vaccine market (Baron market data). This group of vaccines has become so ubiquitous, and competition between competitors so fierce, that they have been reduced to the status of commodities where they can sell for less than 20c/dose. However, this definition does not do justice to the enormous value they have generated for many decades ‘behind the farm gate'.