Vaccinations that drastically reduce E. coli 0157:H7 in cattle may be available as soon as next year.
It costs North American producers and packers millions of dollars annually to preventing this strain of E. coli from entering the food chain or ground water.
A federally funded group of Canadian researchers may have the solution. The test vaccine contains a protein that mimics one discovered by a University of British Columbia researcher.
After a two-year trial in the University of Nebraska’s research feedlots involving 1,100 cattle, the vaccine under development by Bioniche Life Sciences of Belleville, Ont., proved 59 percent effective in reducing the shedding of the bacteria.
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Martin Warmelink, president of the food safety division of Bioniche, said the problem of E. coli in the food chain is “enormous. A really big deal for the (meat) packers in the beef industry.
“(E. coli) crops up in different forms. We have the water issue in Walkerton (Ont.) and we have the meat issue, hamburger disease as it is popularly called …. For the big slaughter houses in the United States it is a huge issue. Ground beef recalls in the order of 19 million pounds are not uncommon due to E. coli.”
In Walkerton, it is suspected that several deaths and 2,300 illnesses were caused by cattle manure runoff entering a community water well in the spring of 2000.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 80 percent of the 37 million American cattle slaughtered annually are killed by four large companies and “they have the ability to specify the use of technologies like this type of a vaccine in the production chain,” said Warmelink.
He expects that meat wholesalers, distributors, retailers and fast food companies, will push for adoption of the new vaccine.
“You can’t get the benefit unless all the cattle being done by a slaughterhouse are being treated (with an E. coli vaccine.) If some are not being treated, then you still open the door to contamination of your plant.”
He said cattle production is slowly going the way of chicken where the animals’ management methods are set by the packers and processors, not the producer.
“All sorts of techniques are used to reduce pathogen loads in general in the slaughter facilities including irradiation, acid sprays, (chlorination), but these aren’t that effective on E. coli.”
Rodney Moxley, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Nebraska, said the bacteria will be difficult to eradicate, but large reductions in its numbers are possible.
“If we can reduce the populations in the feedlots and at key times, then over time, we will likely be able to create a cumulative effect that is significant,” he said.
In Europe, vaccines are already being used in laying hens to reduce salmonella in eggs. The concept of vaccinating livestock to protect human health is already accepted, while at the same time the use of antimicrobial drugs for animal health and growth promotion is being legislated against.
“This is a true Canadian success story. A Canadian consortium, ” said Warmelink.
“The invention of the vaccine by Brett Findlay at the University of British Columbia, the Alberta Research Council with their vaccine manufacturing specialists, VIDO (Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon) with adjuvants, testing and vast experience of vaccine development, and ourselves as the marketing experts, all backed up with federal and provincial government funding.”
His company plans to look after U.S. and Canadian marketing. In Europe, Bioniche might look for a partner “where we don’t have the same experience in marketing.”
Feedlots are the focus of present testing, but it may find a more effective home on ranches as well. Early preconditioning of calves on the ranch, with boosters at the feedlot level, may the best way to approach this, say researchers.
“We are starting a (early preconditioning at the ranch level) study in the states and have one ongoing in Ontario,” said Warmelink.
Bioniche hopes to incorporate the new vaccine with other partner vaccines for single treatment applications.
“At the end of the day, this vaccine is about the welfare of the human being and that is a new concept for North American agriculture,” said Warmelink.
