A vaccine for e. coli??!?!? That’s right — the USDA Agricultural Research Station announced Thursday that two forms of a vaccine for the deadly bacteria have been developed and are currently obtaining patents.

In studies testing the two vaccines, 3 month old Holstein cattle were administered one of the forms of the vaccine or a placebo. Six weeks later they were injected with a strain of the bacteria and for the next 18 days manure samples were taken to evaluate e. coli amounts. Cattle that received either form of the bacteria had either significant decreases in the amount of bacteria shed through manure or had no traces of the bacteria.

This vaccine is very important to the beef industry considering all the recent beef recalls due to e. coli contamination. For several years no federal organization, FDA or USDA, would take responsibility for developing a vaccine. Once one was developed, Canada jumped right on board and started utilizing it. I’m thrilled that the United States can now start preventing such a deadly bacteria from entering the food supply.