E-coli vaccine

[cakadu]

Very shortly, they are going to begin testing this new e-coli vaccine and we are told, that this is being done to at least in part avoid problems like Walkerton in the future.

There has been made mention in other topic discussions about the tagging and the trace back for disease etc. and I'm not convinced that the whole tagging thing isn't more of a liability issue rather than a strict food safety issue, but I digress.

I am wondering what you cattle producers think of this vaccine and what could potentially happen with respect to food safety in some of these packing plants once the vaccine is in wide-spread use? How careful are processors going to be if they know that there is less of a chance of contamination from e-coli because the animals have been vaccinated? Will standards change?

Linda

[jmillang]

Processors have lots to worry about, E coli 0:157 is only one pathogens that they have to worry about. Just ask Schneiders in Sk. They vaccine from what I understand will reduce the build up of the organism. Ecoli are natural organisms scattered everywhere. What we end up having is store houses than provide a bigger source of the organisms. Hopefully through the use of vaccine we will reduce the depositories and only have to deal with the "normal" population.

E coli will not go away, we still have some age old organisms we have been fighting for years, salmonella, for instance. But we have managed to deal with them and use common sense when we handle and process foods susceptible to pathogenic attack

[pandiana]

This is a very interesting question and as with most interesting questions, not that easy to come to grips with. I have used the following perspective in formulating my answer:

The feces of animals are made up in a large part by coliform bacteria (human colon comprises around 30% dead bacteria, I'm not sure what % is found in livestock), a signficant number being Escherichia coli (E.coli). These bacteria have a symbiotic relationship, especially in herbivors where digestion of cellulose and some vitamins contributes a significant source of nutrients. Therefore, they are a good and necessary part of our environment. The problem is that, as with most bacteria, they are in a constant state of evolution. The good bacteria can mutate. These seems to be the case with E.coli 0.157 which produces a pathogenic toxin that has wreaked havoc in the food industry and infected water sources.
Producing a vaccine specific against this particular strain of bacteria would seem to be a good thing, at least as a temporary solution.

The problem as I see it is that it is only a matter of time before we have other E.coli strains that would appear. Not only that, but there are already several other bacteria and micro-organisms that can be pathogenic that are contaminating our food and water (Listeria sp.,Salmonella sp., Cryptosporidium, Giardia to name a few) Many of these originate from livestock, but can be distributed through water, vegetables and fruit that are fertilized with manure as well as meat products.

This problem is a relatively new phenomenon I think. As the livestock industry changes, or as it becomes, I hesitate to say 'more efficent', more livestock are concentrated in very small spaces compared to even 20 years ago. Manure handling has become a major problem. Cow/calf producers are well aware of the problems of calving in small areas. E. coli and viral scours in calves is a major problem. The incidence of calves with scours is related to the degree of bacteria (or viruses)to which they are exposed. High concentrations overwhelms the immune system and even healthy animals can succomb. The same situation exists in most intensive livestock operations, probably to a much higher degree. Animals are exposed, and then re-exposed forming the perfect incubator for new strains of pathogens in very high concentrations. The resulting manure from these operations would potentially carry a higher concentration of pathogenic micro organisms. Because of the volume produced by large operations, disbursing this manure on to fields, where it would be exposed to air and diluted to a safe level, at a reasonable distance from the source becomes problematic.
Therefore, in response to the question, producing vaccines against these pathogens is a complex, and short sited solution. As I see it, the more important problem is how to control the source of pathogens. Because cattleman, like most primary producers, are locked into the need to search for financial 'efficiences' in order to survive, we have often been forced through economies of scale and globalization to sacrifice environmental efficiences.