CANADA, scene of the worst outbreak of the deadly Escherichia coli infection so far, has become the first country to start vaccinating cattle against it.
The virulent 0157 strain infects some 75,000 North Americans a year, up to 16 per cent of whom develop potentially fatal kidney failure as a result. In 2000, some 2300 people in the Ontario town of Walkerton were infected, and seven died. Cattle shed the bacterium in faeces, and people can catch it from contaminated beef, vegetables and water.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver made the vaccine from a mixture…
