Scientists at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine have developed a vaccine that prevents Johne’s disease, a condition that costs the dairy industry $220 million to $250 million annually. The breakthrough is published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Vaccine.
The Cornell team identified and prepared the antigen necessary for the vaccine development. Their antigen is licensed to the Biotechnology Research and Development Corp.
“Johne’s disease is one of the most important infectious diseases that threatens farmers,” said Yung-Fu Chang, Cornell professor of microbiology and the paper’s principal investigator. “Equally important, though, this organism has been suspected to be one of several possible contributing agents to Crohn’s disease that has similar pathologic lesions in people. The results of our research may offer useful information to those working with Crohn’s disease.”
The research was funded by grants from the Biotechnology Research and Development Corp., and a contract through a cooperative agreement between the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.