How Veterinary Vaccines Protect Our Food?
Veterinary vaccines play a crucial role in ensuring food safety and quality. They enhance animal health and productivity by protecting them from deadly diseases and infectious viruses, which guarantees the quality and safety of food consumed by humans.
Reducing Disease and Mortality
Vaccines significantly reduce disease incidence among animals, leading to lower mortality rates and improved overall health. For instance, veterinary vaccines have been shown to reduce livestock mortality rates by up to 20%, which is essential for maintaining stable food supplies.
Decreasing Antibiotic Use
Vaccines help minimize the need for antibiotics in animal husbandry. Overuse of antibiotics can lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, posing significant risks to both human and animal health. Veterinary vaccines reduce the reliance on antibiotics, thereby mitigating resistance risks and preserving their effectiveness for essential treatments.
Protecting Public Health
Veterinary vaccines are pivotal in protecting public health by preventing zoonotic diseases—those transmitted from animals to humans, such as tuberculosis, avian influenza, and the novel coronavirus. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), controlling these diseases at the animal source significantly reduces the risk of outbreaks among humans, ensuring safer and healthier food products, as animals are primary sources of food like eggs, meat, and other protein products.
Increasing Importance of Veterinary Vaccines
The importance of veterinary vaccines is growing due to challenges like climate change, increasing food demand, and rising animal populations, which facilitate disease spread. Companies like (Nitaj) are working through the National Veterinary Vaccines Company to enhance food security systems by producing vaccines for animals and poultry, maintaining animal health, achieving self-sufficiency in veterinary vaccines, and promoting food safety and public health.
Veterinary vaccines are essential for sustainable food systems, ensuring the health of animals, and protecting public health by providing safe and reliable food sources.
References:
- Article: Veterinarians: Protecting the health of animals and people https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/yourvet/veterinarians-protecting-health-animals-and-people
- Article: The importance of vaccination in livestock https://www.farm4tradesuite.com/blog/the-importance-of-vaccination-in-livestock
- Article: Animal vaccines are a lynchpin of global food security https://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com/2023/magazine/animal-health/animal-vaccines-are-a-lynchpin-of-global-food-security/index.html
