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Feedlot Costs of Vaccinating Cattle for E. coli

Aaron Lueger, Ted Schroeder and, David Renter (December, 2012)

Summary

Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli) is one of the most important food safety concerns facing the beef industry. E. coli presence contributes to food product recalls, human health risks,and ultimately reduced consumer demand for beef. As such, reducing prevalence of meat contamination is of utmost importance to the beef industry. Beef food safety is influenced at numerous phases of the production and processing value chain, as such intervention strategies to reduce E. coli prevalence need to be considered and evaluated at each production phase. The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide estimates of the costs associated with vaccination programs to reduce E. coli presence in the cattle feeding sector. Reducing pre-harvest prevalence of E. coli may translate into reducing risk of meat contamination post-harvest.