Vaccination: The Future of Helminth Parasite Control

Abstract

Helminth parasites constitute one of the greatest disease-causing agents with serious productivity implications in grazing livestock worldwide. Effective and sustainable control of these parasites is has become a serious concern due to development of resistance to chemotherapeutic agents by these parasites. This is largely as a result of an over-reliance on chemical agents for worm control. Vaccination offers a non-chemical method of parasite control which has shown the possibility of effectiveness as a helminth control strategy. A number of experimental helminth vaccines have been developed and tested with positive results. There is however, still a long way between helminth vaccine development and availability of these vaccines for commercial use. It is therefore recommended that further studies be carried out towards the development of more vaccines against economically important helminth parasites. Also, standard operating procedures for production and quality control of efficacious helminth vaccines need to be put in place to facilitate progress in this direction.