Vaccine Now Available for Cattle Producers to Fight Foothill Abortion

Press Release from Hygieia Biological Laboratories

Hygieia Biological Laboratories of Woodland, California, announced today that after much anticipation, late last week a conditional license was issued for their Epizootic Bovine Abortion (EBA) vaccine by the USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics.

The announcement of conditional licensure signifies big news for range cattle management in the west, as it means that the vaccine is now available to producers commercially. Utilized to prevent fetal loss in first-calf heifers from the bacteria Pajaroellobacter abortibovis, the vaccine will now be available through local livestock veterinarians. The vaccine is available in convenient 30-dose vials and can be given to open animals of at least 6 months of age, at least 60 days prior to the initiation of breeding.

EBA, also called Foothill Abortion Disease, is often misunderstood and challenging to diagnose. Because of this, losses are difficult to calculate but even a conservative estimate exceeds $10 million annually in California, Oregon, and Nevada alone. This license marks a pivotal advancement in decreasing those substantial losses and comes as the result of decades of work by generations of scientists and cattlemen.

First described in the 1950s by researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine (UCD), subsequent collaborations between UCD, the University of Nevada, Reno, and later the California Cattlemen’s Association, proved invaluable in expanding the understanding of the disease and how to manage it. Grants such as the UC Regents Proof of Concept Grant, the Russell L Rustici Rangeland and Cattle Research Endowment, as well as support from the Livestock Memorial Research Fund and the UC Department of Animal Science, continued to support the efforts and, after joining with Hygieia, commercialization of a vaccine has become a reality.

A decade of vaccine trials have been conducted to establish the safety and efficacy of the product. According to Dr. Jeffrey Stott, lead researcher at the UC Davis Veterinary School, "The vaccine has proven safe and phenomenally effective; the fervor for its widespread availability is palpable among cattle producers."

Hygieia-manufactured vaccine has been used for the past two years in these trials. Since the license has issued, although cattle markets and prices will continue to fluctuate, beef producers now have a vaccine to combat foothill abortion losses.

“The licensing and availability of this vaccine is monumental for the beef cattle industry. For generations producers have had to manage incredible losses from foothill abortion,” Mark Lacey, President of the California Cattlemen’s Association said.

“From the University’s research, to the generous donations of cattlemen and the Livestock Memorial Research Fund, to the production and commercialization of the vaccine, it has been a long haul. I couldn’t be happier to say that we are finally here.”

While the EBA vaccine is Hygieia’s first foray into beef cattle products, the company is well known in food animal biologics, including in the dairy industry for products such as their J-5 mastitis and Hairy Footwart vaccines among others.

For more information about this product, its release, or any other Hygieia Products, please contact Jenna Chandler, EBA Product Manager, at (916) 769-2442 or at jenna@hygieialabs.com.