Thursday, August 11,1988AThe Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
dentists complete initial test of vaccine
By Kimberly Green
Reporter
I Scientists in Texas A&M’s College of Vet
erinary Medicine have completed initial test-
|g of a new vaccine that promises to protect
Ittle from brucellosis, a virus that causes a
$14 million annual production loss in Texas.
JThe infection causes spontanious abor
tions, calf deaths, calves with low birth
Weights and reduced milk production,
n Currently, cattlemen are having to rely on
le USDA Strain 19 vaccine to try and pre-
rly upKnt outbreaks of the disease in their herds,
drear » his P art ‘ cu l ar vaccine is the cause of much
,i frustration in the effort to control and erad-
ite brucellosis because it can produce anti
dies that lead to false-positive tests.
Brucellosis, also known as Bang’s disease, is
ontagious disease of livestock caused by the
Bacteria Brucella and no sure way exists to de-
ct infected cattle by their appearance.
The disease is spread when cattle eat the
acentas of calves after they are born, an ac-
Ibn common among cows that are protective
l oi their herds’ young, said Dr. Garry Adams,
J e Wterinary pathologist with the Texas Agri-
" ore '|cultural Experiment Station.
lew noil Undulant fever, or human brucellosis, has
lUttjn §: en *' n * cec ^ to l ^ e bacterium through contact
hen I th an infected cow or by the consumption
; * of unpasteurized milk or milk products from
ncc infected cattle.
COlorii I Texas has almost one-third of the known
“ hum Brucella-infected herds in the United States.
•Ct tin ■ Brucellosis costs the United States $168
imier wihi° n annually in estimated production
(1 to 111
losses, herd quarantines and regulatory pro
gram costs.
As a consequence of the false results pro
duced by Strain 19, a herd may be quaran
tined and movement of cattle in and out of
that herd is restricted.
Exposed cattle must be kept under quaran
tine until they have passed two consecutive
negative tests over a period of at least 120
days, but can be sold to slaughter or to an ap
proved quarantined feedlot or quarantined
pasture on permit.
Brucellosis tests are mandatory at livestock
auction barns and positive test results often
lower the value of animals for sale.
Recent surveys indicate that because of the
threat of brucellosis, more than 17.7 million
cattle were blood tested and 8.8 million were
vaccinated against brucellosis in the United
States.
Although the number of vaccinated ani
mals has increased in recent years, a large
population of unvaccinated animals still exist.
Many Central Texas counties have high
brucellosis infection rates. As of January only
three counties near Waco — Bosque, Coryell
and Mills counties — had no quarantined
herds, said Clark Bolt of the Texas Animal
Health Commission in Austin.
Both Limestone and Robertson counties
had 15 quarantined herds each and Freestone
County had 13 quarantined herds. Navarro
County had 11 such herds and Milam County
had 10.
Other counties and their quarantined herd
numbers are Leon with eight, Falls with five,
Bell and Hill with four, McLennan with three
and Hamilton and Lampasas with one each.
Only 1,012 herds across the state, or 0.71
percent of all 145,000 herds, are quarantined,
Bolt said. The infected herd numbers have
dropped 40 percent during the past five
years.
The Texas Animal Health Commisssion is
conducting an intensified search for brucello
sis infection in 14 highly contaminated coun
ties along the Gulf Coast, Bolt said.
Jackson County is one of the counties with
the highest rate of infections with 41 quaran
tined herds.
Adams, head of the nine-member Texas
Agricultural Experiment Station research
team that developed the new vaccine, said the
results of laboratory tests in cattle that began
two years ago are “preliminary but quite
promising.”
The new vaccine does not have a name, but
is composed of dead Brucella abortus, a mu
tation of the brucellosis virus, Adams said.
Initial tests on 174 University-owned cattle
still leave some aspects of the vaccine’s perfor
mance unclear. The scientists aren’t sure yet
how long protection lasts and it may provide a
lower rate of protection than the Strain 19
vaccine.
The new vaccine’s advantages over Strain
19 are a longer shelf life, availability to male
as well as female cattle, no potential infection
risk for humans, availability to any aged ani
mal over 5 months old and a potential for
ranchers to inject it as well as veterinarians.
The scientists on the research team hope
the new vaccine’s advantages will encourage
more ranchers to use it. Only 48 percent of all
heifers in the state currently receive the
Strain 19 vaccine, Adams said.
About 70 percent of the cattle population
needs to be vaccinated to have a significant
impact against brucellosis, he said.
Adams said full-scale production of the
vaccine is still some time away and field use
won’t begin until evaluation by the USDA has
been completed. The research group has ap
plied for a patent and is negotiating with
pharmaceutical companies for further devel
opment.
No vaccine is 100 percent effective in pre
venting infection, but research indicated that
65 to 70 percent of the animals vaccinated
with Strain 19 have adequate immunity
against the organisms causing the disease.
Field experience indicates that in the fully
vaccinated herd immunity may exceed 90
percent.
Vaccination is just one tool for eradicating
and controlling brucellosis. Additional prac
tices include:
• Knowledge of the brucellosis status of
any cattle purchased.
• Isolate and test cattle before placing
them with present herd.
• Keep fences in good repair.
• Avoid the use of community pastures.
• Test all animals that abort or are slow
breeders.
• Follow good sanitation practices.
• Consult regularly with local veterinarian
on herd health plans.
Adams stressed that Strain 19, the new vac
cine or any vaccine is not the cure by itself.
“One prevention measure by itself rarely
will solve the problem,” Adams said. “It will
take the use of all of those tools to have the
best individual program for the rancher.”
Prosecutors
present case
of mercy killing
DALLAS (AP) — Prosecutors on
Wednesday were presenting to a
Dallas County grand jury the case of
an 87-year-old man who told police
he fatally shot his wife in her hospi
tal room after she begged him to end
her suffering.
Walter Jose Cottrell was charged
with murder in the July 5 death of
89-year-old Frances Cottrell.
Cottrell’s case was on Wednes
day’s grand jury docket, Patricia
Harding with the Dallas County Dis
trict Attorney’s office said.
Mrs. Cottrell died in her bed in
the Laboure Care Center of the St.
Paul Medical Center complex, where
she had been since surgery on May
20.
A subsequent stroke left her par
tially paralyzed.
The woman “had been in severe
pain for quite some time . . . and had
been begging (her husband) to kill
her, because her condition was get
ting worse and worse,” a police re
port said.
Armed with an antique .38-caliber
Smith & Wesson revolver, Cottrell
had walked into his wife’s hospital
room, put the weapon on the left
side of her head and Tired one shot,
said police.
onvicted killer denies UT student slaying
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — A con-
jficted killer who was scheduled to
loretfidie next week for the 1983 abduc
tion-slaying of a University of Texas
coed insisted Wednesday he was not
sponsible for the killing and
ould not be executed.
“I’m not a troublemaking-type
rson,” Tommy Jackson, 31, said
ednesday. “Things have hap-
ned in my life that were out of my
ntrol. I’ve been a victim of circum-
lances.”
Jackson faced an Aug. 19 execu-
an for the shooting death of Rosa-
bd Robison, 24, of Terre Haute,
Ind. Robison, an engineering stu
dent at the University of Texas, was
found in a Williamston County
gravel pile more than a month after
she disappeared. She had been shot
once in the head.
Jackson was arrested driving her
car. A co-defendant, James Otis C-
lary, received a life sentence stem
ming from the woman’s slaying and
testified against Jackson.
“Tm not going to say he com
mitted it,” Jackson said of Clary.
“Tm going to say I did not. He plea
bargained and he got a life sen
tence.”
Jackson, who was on parole for
burglary when he was arrested for
the Robison killing, also served 31
months of a 10-year federal sentence
for a 1977 bank robbery in Thorn-
dale.
On Tuesday, State District Judge
John Carter in Georgetown granted
Jackson a stay until at least Oct. 3 so
newly appointed attorneys could
prepare post-conviction appeals mo
tions, attorney Hugh Lowe said.
Jackson, however, was not aware
of the stay when interviewed
Wednesday on death row.
Jackson said he knew the victim
socially and ran into her the night
she disappeared when she was at an
automated bank teller machine in
Austin. He said the woman had
loaned him her car.
The Texas Department of Cor
rections account of Jackson’s trial,
however, indicates Robison was ab
ducted from the university campus
and was taken to the bank, where
she was forced to withdraw money
from the machine. Then she was
taken to a rural area and fatally shot.
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