Novel vaccination approaches to improve the growth rate of cattle

Abstract

This project aimed to develop a vaccine alternative to clenbuterol, which could be used to increase muscle growth, reduce fat deposition and improve feed efficiency in cattle.
However, unlike the B-agonist drug, the vaccine would be convenient for use in grazing livestock, and acceptable to the consumer because there would be no risk of harmful tissue residues. It has already been shown that the vaccine causes cattle to produce antibodies which have a 'clenbuterol-like' effect, when they are purified and
tested on muscle samples in the laboratory. Unfortunately, the present work showed that such antibodies are not produced in sufficient strength in the live animal, to have a detectable influence on its growth or metabolism. Thus, without further investigations, there will be no immediate or long-term benefit of this work to the industry.