May 2011 is National Vaccination Month and to further establish BioMed Central as a leading veterinary science publisher, several journals in our portfolio of veterinary journals have recently published important research on vaccination.

BioMed Central’s number of veterinary journals has been rapidly growing, with the existing BMC Veterinary Research and Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica joined by well established and respected journals Veterinary Research and Irish Veterinary Journal earlier this year.

Acquired in January, Veterinary Research, published by INRA and with an Impact Factor of 3.58, has been an exciting addition to the portfolio and this month highlights new research from Dr Courcoul et al. on vaccination effectiveness on Q fever in dairy cattle. Their findings show that it is more effective to vaccinate both cows and heifers, in contrast to simply vaccinating heifers, and they suggest that their model can be further modified to assess other control strategies such as environmental and hygienic measures. Veterinary Research also published a review earlier this year by Dr Biacchesi on the recent breakthroughs achieved by using reverse genetic systems to recover infectious fish RNA viruses from cDNA, and how these viruses can be used as live vaccines in future. Both articles are important in developing further knowledge on the use and effectiveness of animal vaccines.

To further build on this theme, research published in Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica highlights the need for more in depth knowledge on worm control practices and how to combat anthelmintic resistance, which is becoming more common. Anthelmintics are the most common drug used to combat nematode infections in sheep and cattle and therefore reports of anthelmintic resistance are concerning. The article, published by Dr Domke et al. suggests that anthelmintic resistance is most commonly caused by under-dosing in sheep and high treatment frequency in lambs. An article published in Irish Veterinary Journal by Dr Patten et al. echoes this concern, showing that there is a need for greater awareness of the importance of the sustainable use of anthelmintics. They suggest that practices that preserve anthelmintic efficacy should be given a very high priority in the design of helminth control programmes on individual farms.

This new and topical vaccination research highlights the need to fully utilise existing vaccination techniques for maximum effect, and also the importance of a continued focus on developing new methods and products. BioMed Central’s open access veterinary journals will continue to publish high quality research in this field and make it available to all.