Livestock productivity is adversely affected by various infectious diseases. It is well known that vaccination is considered as a sustainable option to control infectious diseases and thereby overcome the losses and increase the productivity. Livestock in Sri Lanka is also affected by various infectious diseases such as Foot and Mouth disease (FMD), hemorrhagic septicemia (HS), brucellosis, black quarter (BQ), Newcastle disease, contagious pustular dermatitis and classical swine fever. The veterinary research institute, national institute of Sri Lanka, plays an important role in livestock sector by locally producing number of vaccines. Currently there are several vaccines such FMD, HS, BQ, Brucellosis S19, Newcastle disease and tick fever produced by VRI and issued to farmers free of charge.  Hemorrhagic septicemia, which is one of the major diseases in cattle and buffalo before 2005, is controlled successfully by the locally produced vaccine and only sporadic cases were reported a few years back. Fowl cholera and swine pasteurellosis are produced based on the request received from commercial farms. Though the government of Sri Lanka fully supports the vaccine production by providing necessary funds, the challenges are numerous such as high cost of production, Lack of training to upgrade the knowledge, delay in getting raw materials, unexpected interruptions due to equipment breakdown, delay in getting raw materials, limited studies on emerging field strains and lack of public private partnership. Since most of the vaccines use local isolate as a seed, the vaccine efficacy is very good.
Further, research on development of new vaccines and improvement in quality and quantity are continuously carried out.