The vaccine produced by Bioniche Life Sciences is the world's first vaccine developed to reduce the shedding of E. coli O157:H7 by cattle, the company said. The vaccine received full licensing approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency last October and is available for unrestricted use by Canadian cattle producers.
The results of a large-scale commercial beef feedlot study with the vaccine - called Econiche - found that vaccinated cattle were 92 percent less likely to be colonized with E. coli O157:H7 than non-vaccinated cattle.
Published in this month's issue of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, a peer-reviewed journal, the study is the second published study demonstrating more than 90 percent effectiveness of the Bioniche vaccine against colonization, the company said.
Scientists said the study found no evidence that variance in processing and reprocessing at feedlots affected vaccine efficacy. "[T]he protective effect of vaccine did not change as the number of days between reprocessing and harvest increased," the study authors said.
