Cattle vaccine will limit E. coli in manure

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Published: August 2, 2001

An Ontario company’s prediction that within a year it will market a vaccine to reduce the deadly E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria in cattle manure is hailed as a breakthrough in food safety, public health and the image of the cattle industry.

Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. of Belleville and London received a $17.2 million federal loan to help it complete research and then commercialize the vaccine, plus develop a replacement for cattle antibiotics and create a product to fight human bladder and prostate cancers.

Natalie Godbout, communications manager for Bioniche, said in a July 25 interview the E. coli vaccine is expected to get provisional approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency soon.

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“We expect to have a product in the Canadian market by the first quarter of 2002,” she said.

Bioniche president Graeme McRae told a July 24 news conference that Canada will be the first market to have access to the product.

“It will be the first vaccine worldwide,” he said. “We are considerably ahead of the multinationals on this.”

Lorne Babiuk, director of the Saskatoon-based Veterinary Infectious Disease Organization, predicted cattle producers will embrace the product because of public pressure to keep water supplies clean and safe.

“This announcement is about improving the quality of life for all of us,” he said.

E. coli has been a major public issue since the water supply of Walkerton., Ont., was contaminated last year. Seven people died while hundreds became sick.

“We have all come to understand the need for a clean, safe water supply,” said federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief, who made the announcement of the investment.

The vaccine has been developed over years of work and co-operation by researchers at the University of British Columbia, the Alberta Research Council, VIDO and Bioniche.

Last week’s federal help from the industry department’s Technology Partnerships Canada fund will help the company get the product onto the market. It will create up to 589 jobs, mainly in the Belleville area, which is in Vanclief’s riding.

McRae said the federal money will be paid back, but it also will save the health-care system millions of dollars by reducing costs associated with treating Canadians suffering from E. coli illness.

Babiuk said the vaccine is based on a simple discovery. To propagate, the E. coli bacteria attaches itself to the cattle intestine wall before making its way back into the world through manure. If the bacteria cannot attach itself to the intestine, its presence is limited and the chances of water contamination are reduced.

“We found the Achilles heel of the bacteria,” he told the news conference.

Vanclief also lauded the potential benefits of one of the other Bioniche products being developed, a biological alternative to cattle antibiotics.

“By developing an alternative to antibiotics … we open the door to a very lucrative organic beef market.”

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