California Beef Cattle Industry to Work with UC Davis to Eradicate Costly Disease

SACRAMENTO, CA – 1/23/07 – At its 90th annual convention, the California Cattlemen's Association (CCA) Livestock Memorial Research Fund (LMRF) approved a contribution of $50,000 to the University of California, Davis to fund the development of a promising foothill abortion vaccine in cattle.

The LMRF agreed to make an initial $50,000 contribution in 2007 and has set aside an additional $15,000 each year for the following two years to support research and funding at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. This represents the largest funding commitment made by LMRF and reflects the importance of this research to California's beef cattle industry.

"Foothill abortion is a very important regional disease that affects California. Regional diseases see very little funding and the fact that the California Cattlemen's Association is partnering with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine is very important to moving the research forward," says Dean Bennie Osburn of the UC Davis School of Veterinarian Medicine. "We're on the verge of developing a vaccine that we feel will be of great importance in reducing the incidence of this disease and improving the health of our cattle herd."

Foothill abortion, also known as Epizootic Bovine Abortion (EBA), causes an estimated loss of 45,000 to 90,000 calves each year, amounting to a $6.3 million out-of-pocket expense for cattle producers. Through ongoing UC research, the cause of foothill abortion has recently been linked to a primitive bacterial pathogen transmitted through bites from the Pajaroello tick. Isolation and identification of this microorganism has now opened the door for research into a cutting edge, protein-based vaccination which, if successful, could be made available to immunize heifers and cows in as soon as three years.