VACCINE -BARBERVAX 100ML BARBERS POLE VACCINE 1ML X 5 DOSES PER ANIMAL

Barbervax is the first effective vaccine to be developed to treat Barbers Pole worm, the most significant roundworm parasite of sheep and goats in the world.

It provides farmers with a revolutionary tool to combat infestation.

Unlike with drenches, Barbers Pole worms that are resistant to the vaccine are not expected to evolve because the vaccine works in a very different way.

Barbervax contains tiny amounts of protein purified from the lining of Barbers Pole intestines.

Like all vaccines, it works by stimulating the natural immune response in the animal after injection. The antibodies produced circulate in the sheeps blood, so that the parasites ingest them with their blood meal.

These antibodies then attach to the lining of the Barbers Pole intestine, blocking digestion and starving the worm so that it produces far fewer eggs and dies.

Benefit:

This vaccine provides a major alternative to drench-based control and will help manage worms in the face of drench resistance.

Barbervax will be of particular benefit in barbers pole-endemic regions where frequent drenching may be necessary to prevent sheep deaths.

The vaccine is given to sheep and lambs as a series of subcutaneous injections of 1 ml, at no more than 6-week intervals to cover the barbers pole worm-risk season.

It is important to understand that the first two vaccinations are not able to provide protection, but they prime the lambs immune system so that protection occurs following the third vaccination, and lasts for up to 6 weeks.

Further vaccinations need to be given each 6 weeks while there is a barbers pole worm risk or more frequently in those years and situations where animals are exposed to very heavy challenge from barbers pole worm.

Once sheep have received a course of vaccine as lambs, a single booster injection in a subsequent season will typically provide 6 weeks protection without the need for a second priming dose.

Immunity to barbers pole worm is not sustained, whether it is acquired by exposure to natural worm infections or from the Barbervax vaccine.

Barbervax immunity works in a different way from naturally acquired immunity and because it is not boosted by natural exposure, lasts for only 6 weeks after the sheep has been primed by a series of 3 vaccinations.

Other vaccines given to sheep also vary in their lengths of protection.