Vaccine uptake report for cattle and sheep

The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA) Alliance has helped develop a coordinated industry approach to best practice in animal medicine use. Monitoring vaccine uptake is part of the sheep and beef sector targets. 

The sheep and beef sectors are committed to monitoring the sales of vaccines within their targets. It is important to use vaccines alongside other medicines appropriately and to discuss with your vet what is applicable to use on your farm. Many factors contribute to fluctuations in vaccine sales, including changes in the dose regimes along with manufacturing and supply issues. Sales from wholesalers do not necessarily equate to use in that year. However, it is still a useful measure of the likely level of protection in the target group.

The number of doses of cattle vaccines sold annually rose by 18.0% between 2011 and 2022.

The number of doses of sheep vaccines sold annually rose by 13.9% between 2011 and 2022.  

RUMA targets aimed for an increase in the uptake of both footrot and enzootic abortion vaccines.  The uptake of footrot vaccines rose by 79.8%, and the uptake of vaccines for Enzootic Abortion of Ewes rose by 14.4% between 2012 and 2021. However, due to supply shortages of both vaccines in 2022, a decrease in uptake was observed from 2021 to 2022.