Diseases from ticks can be devastating to cattle, but a new vaccine could offer protections

Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a vaccine to protect cattle against a deadly tick-borne disease.

Bovine anaplasmosis impacts red blood cells in cattle and causes the animal's immune system to destroy the cells faster than it can produce new ones. As a result, infected cattle can develop anemia and other severe conditions that often lead to death.

"It is very difficult for an animal to clear the infection," said Dr. Roman Ganta, a McKee endowed professor at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine and a Bond Life Sciences Center researcher. "The impact is that it causes significant losses to the cattle industry: beef, milk, meat production."

Ganta, who led the research, said his team created the first effective vaccine by removing a gene from the pathogen, anaplasma marginale, which causes the disease. The cattle in the study were then injected with the modified pathogen and successfully immunized, according to Ganta.

"[The] host induces the immune response so good and so effective that when you challenge with an infection, either by needle inoculation, such as in a mechanical transmission method or from a tick infected with this bacterium, animals are healthy," he said, "That's exactly what we have discovered."

In the United States, it's estimated that bovine anaplasmosis leads to millions of dollars in annual losses in the cattle industry due to treatment costs, decreased production and deaths.

Anita Vanderwert, a fifth generation cattle producer and the vice president for the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, said her family has dealt with their fair share of "heart breaking" deaths caused by the disease in their cattle. She said the news of the vaccine development instills hope that ranchers will one day be able to prevent them.

"[Bovine anaplasmosis] is more than just Missouri. It is a Midwest, South, Eastern disease," said Vanderwert. "Let's just hope that the whole industry gets behind it, and this vaccine proves to be something that will be a huge economic impact. It'll save a lot of cattle producers a lot - financially as well as emotionally."

As the disease continues to affect cattle in more Midwestern states, including Kansas and Illinois, ranchers are eager to find a way to protect their cattle, said Teresa Steckler, a researcher with the University of Illinois Extension who specializes in the beef industry.

"I've conducted a survey and it showed that cattlemen, on average, during the time period from 2018 to 2020, lost about $2,000 a year," she said. "And I think that's a very conservative estimate of those cattlemen in southern Illinois."

Having a vaccine could be a "game changer" for the cattle industry, Steckler said.

Cassandra Olds, a veterinarian entomologist and assistant professor at Kansas State University, knows it will take time before the vaccine is proven effective and widely available. She said she read the paper for the vaccine but wants to see how it holds up in larger studies and against other disease strains circulating in the wild.

"I think [cattle producers] should be cautiously optimistic about the future, right?" Olds said. "In the meantime, I wouldn't be expecting it to be on the shelves next year. I think it's going to take a good few years to get to the point where it's ready to be a commercial vaccine, and then it's the whole aspect of producing it."

Among those necessary steps before the vaccine could be widely available to cattle producers is approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Lyndsay Cole, a spokesperson for the USDA said that its Center for Veterinary Biologics will work to "assure that pure, safe, potent, and effective veterinary biologics are available for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of animal diseases."

"The CVB stands ready to engage with these vaccine development efforts when they have matured to the commercialization stage," Cole said.

For now, Ganta said his team is excited to move the potential vaccine into the next research phases, which will require more years of research and funding, as well as approval from the USDA.

"Of course, the proof is in the pudding," he said.

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.

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