Note. For maximum success, vaccination as a control measure should be applied together with other control measures and continued for a full specified period (frequently three years is the period specified in a region with a history of regular or periodic outbreaks). Attention needs to be paid to problems that may arise if antibiotics are being administered to the animals for any reason (see section 7.2.1.3, Annex 6, section 1.4). It makes sense in many endemic regions to use combined vaccines, such as BQ/Anthrax vaccine.

Vaccines are generally available (see Annex 5). Problems largely relate to the attitudes of farmers (Dietvorst, 1996a), cost, and logistics of carrying out and evaluating the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns. Examples of the sort of resistance on the part of farmers to vaccination, and the rationale for this resistance, are well covered by Dietvorst (1996a). As a first example, vaccination initiated in response to an outbreak has led to the situation in which the vaccine has been administered to animals already infected and which have died shortly after. This results in, at best, loss of faith in the vaccine and, at worst, a belief that the vaccine killed the animal(s). A second example is a belief that animals must be rested for two weeks after vaccination; frequently farmers feel they are unable to cease work for this period. The earliest identification of anthrax infection and application of annual vaccination of susceptible animals before the anthrax season in endemic areas will overcome most of these negative attitudes.