Clostridial Vaccines for Animals

Vaccination is frequently practiced to protect animals against clostridial diseases. A wide variety of vaccines are available, singly or in combinations that consist of bacterins, toxoids, or mixtures of bacterins and toxoids.

Single vaccination with most clostridial vaccines does not provide adequate levels of protection and must be followed by a booster dose within 3–6 weeks.

Vaccination of young animals against clostridial diseases does not yield adequate protective immunity until they are at least 1–2 months old. Therefore, most vaccination strategies target the pregnant dam so that maximal immunity is transferred to the neonate via colostrum.

Most commercial clostridial vaccines are inactivated, and they usually contain 2-, 4-, 7-, or 8-way combinations of clostridial organisms or toxoids. Administration of these vaccines should be optimally timed for provision of maximal protection at the most likely age of susceptibility.

Tetanus toxoid is commonly administered as a single vaccine in horses, or in combination with vaccines against equine arboviral encephalomyelitides (eastern encephalomyelitis, western encephalomyelitis, and West Nile virus).

Tetanus toxoid is often administered in combination in sheep, goats, and cattle. In sheep and goats, a common combination is tetanus toxoid plus Clostridium perfringens types C and D.

In cattle, combination vaccines are frequently administered that include Clostridium chauvoei, C septicum, C novyi, C sordellii, and C perfringens types B, C, and D (7-way), sometimes also with C haemolyticum (also called C novyi type D; 8-way) to protect against blackleg, gas gangrene, and enterotoxemias. The addition of C haemolyticum also extends the protection to include bacillary hemoglobinuria.

Clostridial vaccines often cause tissue reactions and swelling and should therefore be administered to cattle in the neck and subcutaneously rather than intramuscularly.