New Vaccine Keeps E. Coli Inside Cows
July 2, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle
by Stacy Finz
While storekeepers were frantically pulling E. coli-tainted cookie dough and beef from their shelves last month, scientists rolled out the country’s first cattle vaccine to snuff out the potentially deadly bacteria.
Epitopix LLC, a Minnesota veterinary pharmaceutical company, has received a conditional license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to market Escherichia coli Bacterial Extract, and the firm plans to release the vaccine to begin inoculating beef cattle in the fall. The vaccine can reduce the prevalence of cattle shedding 0157:H7 – the strain of E. coli responsible for food-borne illnesses – by as much as 85 percent, said scientists who have been testing the product.
E. coli 0157 is carried through cattle feces, although it has also been found in swine and some wildlife, and is estimated to sicken 70,000 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Experts hail the discovery as a milestone that could go a long way toward wiping out the poisonous microbe that has contaminated everything from spinach and Odwalla juices to Jack in the Box hamburgers and, more recently, Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough. Just this week JBS Swift Beef Co., the largest meat producer in the world, had to expand a recall now totaling 420,000 pounds of beef processed in its Greeley, Colo., plant because of E. coli 0157. So far, 23 people have reported becoming ill from the beef, including two who have suffered kidney failure.
“The vaccine is potentially very exciting,” said Michele Jay-Russell, an epidemiologist formerly with the California Department of Public Health who is now a researcher at UC Davis. “Being able to reduce the bacteria will not only have an effect on the beef industry, but on the environment.”
The cattle and beef industry – a $1.85 billion-a-year business in California – is also cautiously optimistic.
“While it’s still early in the process, we’re excited about the prospect of the vaccine,” said Matt Byrne, executive vice president of the California Cattlemen’s Association. “Beef producers have been very aggressive in reducing incidents. This is the next natural step.”
Click here for the full report from the San Francisco Chronicle.
