USDA approves E. coli vaccine

WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- The U. S. Department of Agriculture has approved a new vaccine to reduce the prevalence of E. coli O157 in beef cattle.

The agency issued a conditional license to Epitopix, LLC, of Willmar, Minn., for the vaccine, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Friday.

USDA said E. coli O157:H7 often enters the food supply when muscle tissue becomes contaminated with E. coli from the intestinal tract of cattle during the slaughtering process.

Researchers at Kansas State University said the vaccine has been tested successfully at commercial feed yards.

"With this vaccine, we observed decreases in cattle shedding E. coli O157," Dan Thomson of K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine said in a release. "In our last field study we observed an 86 percent reduction in the number of animals shedding E. coli. Of the vaccinated cattle that were still shedding, we observed nearly a 98 percent reduction of E. coli O157 fecal concentration.