Bayer and Université de Sherbrooke working together on dairy cattle health

License agreement revolves around possible mastitis vaccine

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Bayer and Quebec’s Université de Sherbrooke have entered into a licensing agreement which will advance a possible vaccine to help dairy cattle fight mastitis.

As part of the agreement, Bayer will develop and commercialize the vaccine, which was discovered at the university, based on the technology property from TransferTech Sherbrooke, the corporate entity that commercializes innovations from the school.

A vaccine that could help dairy cows battle mastitis would be beneficial to farmers, especially as it causes billions of dollars-worth of losses; and according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, upwards of 895 million people directly depend on some form of dairy farming.

"In North America, it is estimated that the economic losses related to mastitis can reach US$ 2.4 billion annually, representing about 11% of the total milk production from more than 10 million cows," said Professor Jacques Beauvais, Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Université de Sherbrooke in a press release. "An effective vaccine that could help protect dairy cattle from S. aureus mastitis would make a welcomed difference to dairy farmers around the world."

In a release, Bayer said it’s pleased to work with researchers in the hopes of helping veterinarians and farmers fight mastitis.