Will we see an E. coli vaccine for cows in the near future? Looks like it's a possibility, if the research going on at Montana State University (with participation from the USDA) is successful.
While any technology that can prevent human sickness and death from E. coli is a good thing, this looks to me like a case of "there was an old woman who swallowed a fly." The simple way to reduce E. coli is to feed cows grass during the last few days before slaughter. To keep fecal matter out of the meat, we could keep the cows in more sanitary conditions so they do not get so much manure on their hides and slow down the line speed in our slaughterhouses so the workers make less mistakes resulting in contamination.
