Via The Globe and Mail: Canadian vaccine offers hope for global scourge of E. coli. Excerpt:
As a deadly outbreak of a rare form of E. coli ravages Europe, the latest in a string of similar health scares over the years, scientists are in a race to come up with ways to eliminate the often deadly bacteria from the food system.
Now, a made-in-Canada solution is about to hit the mass market in the form of a vaccine that would inoculate cows for the most common strain.
Canada’s Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. holds the patent to the world’s first E. coli vaccine. Trademarked Econiche, the vaccine works by enabling a treated cow to produce antibodies that block proteins secreted by the dangerous strain of bacteria as it attempts to take up residence in the intestinal wall. Because the bacteria are blocked from attaching to the cell wall, they die, rather than congregate and multiply.
The theory behind reducing E. coli levels in cows is that it will reduce the amount an animal “sheds” into the environment, in turn making E. coli contamination less likely in the food chain.
Bovines carry a cocktail of E. coli strains in their intestinal tracts, none of which is harmful to the animals. Released into water, soil or onto crops via contaminated manure, the bacteria can be picked up by other animals and transferred to people.
Several strains are dangerous and even fatal to humans because they produce Shiga toxins, which trigger symptoms ranging from diarrhea to untreatable kidney and liver failure. Those include O157:H7, which the new vaccine targets, and the more rare strain O104 at the centre of Germany’s outbreak.
In 2000, seven people died and hundreds more were sickened by water contaminated with O157:H7 in the small town of Walkerton, Ont., and in 1993, hundreds became ill and four died after an outbreak of the same strain in Washington state caused by contaminated beef patties at Jack in the Box restaurants. Other outbreaks of it were linked to meat at Welsh schools and fresh spinach in California.
Food companies around the world have made huge investments in technologies that allow them to detect harmful E. coli or refine their packing processes to reduce risks. Treating cattle with a vaccine would ideally nip much of the problem at its source.
