A Canadian vaccine designed to reduce E.coli O157:H7 shedding in cattle has become the first drug of its kind to be approved for use in the United Kingdom.

The medication - manufactured by Bioniche Life Sciences, Inc. - was granted a Special Treatment Certificate (STC) by the UK's Veterinary Medical Directorate (VMD), a branch of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. STCs are issued to veterinary surgeons when an appropriate remedy for an animal disease is not available in the UK, but can be accessed from another country.

The VMD recognised that, although E.coli O157 does not cause illness in ruminants, the bacterium occurs naturally in domestic cattle and they are the primary reservoir of this human pathogen.

"I am very pleased to see an STC issued for this application," said Dr Chris Low, Director of One Health at the University of Edinbugh's School of Veterinary Studies. "On-farm vaccination is a logical preventative measure to reduce the risk of human exposure to E.coli O157 and this initiative by Bioniche Life Sciences adds to the armoury of those involved in livestock agriculture to ensure that, in the many contexts where country meets city, human illness is not a result.

The first application of the drug is likely to be on farms where the public risks exposure to cow faeces (eg open/petting farms).

The STC allows UK veterinary surgeons to use the foreign drug until an equivalent one, or that same drug, is approved for use in the EU. Before it can be approved across the EU, the drug - Econiche - must meet the EU's Good Manufacturing Practices, a process that's expected to take anywhere from a year to 18 months.

Econiche was approved for use in Canada in October of 2008. However, it has not yet received a green light from the U.S. Department of Agriculture - the agency responsible for licensing and regulating Shiga toxin-producing E.coli vaccines in the United States. In the U.S. another drug designed to prevent E.coli shedding in cattle (Pfizer's E.coli Bacterial Extract Vaccine with SRP® Technology) has been approved by USDA, but has yet to find the funding necessary to be put to widespread use.

That vaccine got a boost recently, however, when Kansas State University released a study showing that an "E.coli Vaccine" (presumed to be the Pfizer drug) reduces shedding of E.coli O157:H7 from cows by more than 50% and that less of the drug is needed to achieve this effect than originally thought, meaning that the cost to farmers would be lower than expected.