Cargill is testing at least one of two forms of a vaccine that might reduce the spread of E. coli 0157:H7 in cattle intestines.
The availability of the vaccine was announced last month by the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, but which of the two forms is being tested has not been announced.
Company spokesman Mark Klein told the Lincoln, Nebraska Journal Star that about 100,000 cattle would receive the vaccine.
They were expected to go to slaughter in the May through September period at Fort Morgan, Colorado.
About a dozen feedlots near Fort Morgan are involved in the testing.
One of those feedlot operators believed cattle vaccination needed to become an industry-wide practice for it to have a meaningful effect on food safety.
Then there is the question of how the cost of cattle vaccines gets integrated into the business proposition from producers to consumers.
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