PHL - Animal Vaccines for Livestock, Farm and Exotic Animals

Glossary of Common Terms

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Abscess: A localized collection of pus in part of the body, formed by tissue disintegration and surrounded by an inflamed area

Adjuvants: Materials that enhance an immune response when administered with an antigen are called adjuvants. The simplest are those that function by slowing the release of antigen into the body and thereby prolong the immune response. Some antigen/adjuvant mixtures form depots from which the antigen is slowly released; examples of depot-forming adjuvants include aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, and potassium aluminum sulfate (alum). The antigen is absorbed onto the salt crystals before inoculation. Upon injection, the salt/antigen mixture forms a small nodule in the tissues that slowly leaks antigen into the body and provides a prolonged antigenic stimulus. Antigens that normally persist for only a few days may be retained in the body for several weeks by this technique. Depot adjuvants enhance only the primary immune response and have little effect on secondary reactions. Other slow-release adjuvants include beryllium sulfate, silica, kaolin, and carbon. Although many other adjuvants have been administered experimentally, few have been accepted for use in domestic animals. Recently, several new adjuvants have been licensed for use in animal vaccines; most are unidentified because the products are proprietary.

Anemia: A pathological deficiency in the oxygen-carrying component of the blood, measured in unit volume concentrations of hemoglobin, red blood cell volume, or red blood cell number.

Antibody: A protein substance produced in the blood or tissues in response to a specific antigen, such as a bacterium or a toxin, that destroys or weakens bacteria and neutralizes organic poisons, thus forming the basis of immunity.

Antigen: A substance that when introduced into the body stimulates the production of an antibody. Antigens include toxins, bacteria, foreign blood cells, and the cells of transplanted organs.

Autogenous: Of or relating to vaccines prepared from bacteria obtained from the infected animal.

Bacterin: A suspension of killed or weakened bacteria used as a vaccine.

Biologicals: Preparations, such as drugs, vaccines, or antitoxins, that are synthesized from living organisms or their products and used medically as diagnostic, preventive, or therapeutic agents.

Buffered: A substance that minimizes change in the acidity of a solution when an acid or base is added to the solution.

Cellulitis: A spreading inflammation of subcutaneous or connective tissue.

Diluent: (dly-nt) An inert substance used to dilute.

Dyspnea: Difficulty in breathing, often associated with lung or heart disease and resulting in shortness of breath.

Efficacy: Power or capacity to produce a desired effect; effectiveness.

Endemic: Prevalent in or peculiar to a particular locality or region.

Exudate: A substance that has oozed forth.

Fomites: Any substance or object supposed to be capable of absorbing, retaining, and transporting contagious or infectious germs; as, woolen clothes are said to be active fomites.

Hematocrit: The percentage by volume of packed red blood cells in a given sample of blood after centrifugation.

Immunosuppressed: Suppression of the immune response.

Intraerythrocytic: situated or occurring within the red blood cells

Pathogen: An agent that causes disease, especially a living microorganism such as a bacterium or fungus.

pH: A measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, numerically equal to 7 for neutral solutions, increasing with increasing alkalinity and decreasing with increasing acidity. The pH scale commonly in use ranges from 0 to 14.

Proprietary: Something that is used, produced, or marketed under exclusive legal right of the inventor or maker.

Purulent: Containing, discharging, or causing the production of pus: a purulent infection.

Ruminant: Any of various hoofed, even-toed, usually horned mammals of the suborder Ruminantia, such as cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and giraffes, characteristically having a stomach divided into four compartments and chewing a cud consisting of regurgitated, partially digested food.

Serotypes: A group of closely related microorganisms distinguished by a characteristic set of antigens.

Titer: (ttr) Concentration of a substance in solution or the strength of such a substance determined by titration.

Toxoid: A substance that has been treated to destroy its toxic properties but retains the capacity to stimulate production of antitoxins, used in immunization.

Vaccine: A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen, such as a bacterium or virus, or of a portion of the pathogen's structure that upon administration stimulates antibody production or cellular immunity against the pathogen but is incapable of causing severe infection.

Vector: An organism, such as a mosquito or tick, that carries disease-causing microorganisms from one host to another.

Virulent: Extremely infectious, malignant, or poisonous. Used of a disease or toxin.

Virus: Any of various simple submicroscopic parasites of plants, animals, and bacteria that often cause disease and that consist essentially of a core of RNA or DNA surrounded by a protein coat. Unable to replicate without a host cell, viruses are typically not considered living organisms.