E. Coli Vaccine
Eliminating E-coli often associated with beef production. How many times have we heard that hamburger has to be cooked all the way through for fear of getting E. coli bacteria into our systems. Indeed, E. coli can contaminate lots of foods as we learned from the recent peanut butter debacle coming out of Georgia. But now, beef producers are trying to take on this form of food contamination in a very pro-active way…a vaccine. Scientists are now hoping that by vaccinating beef cattle, they can significantly reduce the amount of this dangerous bacteria that cattle carry into processing plants. This is an important first step and Dr. Bill Barton, Administrator of Veterinary Sciences for the State of Idaho, says we have to have realistic expectations : “I don’t think anyone expects the E. coli vaccine in cattle to be the whole solution to the problem. I think it’s one piece of the puzzle and if we can decrease the amount of E. coli being shed you decrease the risk of it being picked up in the processing.”
