Mixed-colour beef cows and calves gathered near a wire fence on green pasture. Bovine tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial disease of cattle and some wild animals. Photo: Alexis Stockford

Researchers advance first-of-its-kind bovine TB vaccine to trials

A vaccine engineered by the University of Saskatchewan's VIDO protected 80 per cent of lab mice against a highly virulent bovine TB strain without compromising the tuberculin skin test — clearing the way for the first cattle trials of a potential Canadian-made bovine TB vaccine

Reading Time: 5 minutes A University of Saskatchewan vaccine candidate for bovine TB has cleared mouse trials and is moving to cattle testing — a potential world first.




Cattle at Whiskey Creek Ranch are rotationally grazed intensively, moved every two to three days. (Jeremy Simes Photo)

Hot tips for cow-calf beef farmers

From cattle vaccination and stomach ulcers to headline-making diseases like bovine tuberculosis: Thoughts from a long-time western Canadian veterinarian

Reading Time: 5 minutes From cattle vaccination and stomach ulcers to headline-making diseases like bovine tuberculosis: Thoughts from a long-time western Canadian veterinarian


Beef cattle line up at a pasture fence. Photo Diana Martin

A new vaccine for bovine tuberculosis? Maybe not yet, but a step closer

Canadian research suggests bovine TB vaccine candidate MSX-1 may finally offer some protection without intering with tuberculosis test results, but it’s still early days

Reading Time: 5 minutes Bovine TB vaccine candidate MSX-1 may finally offer cattle some disease protection without intering with tuberculosis test results, but it’s still early days.



Manitoba spent a lot of effort in past decades to keep bovine tuberculosis out of the province’s cattle. In June 2025, the disease made a return in a Manitoba dairy. (Dairy cattle photographed above are unrelated to the recent bovine tuberculosis finding) Photo: File

Bovine tuberculosis found in Manitoba

A dairy farm in south-central Manitoba has been declared infected with bovine tuberculosis, the province’s first bovine TB case in years

A dairy farm in south-central Manitoba has been declared infected with bovine tuberculosis after samples from a cow tested positive for the bacterial disease. It's the province's first bovine TB case in years.




“What would be ideal is if we actually had a test that would identify active disease. That’s what we’re all working on.”  – Fred Quinn.

Behind the times on bovine TB

Standard tests are inefficient and inaccurate, and that can be deadly for both cattle and humans, say researchers

Reading Time: 5 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Canada’s monitoring regimen for bovine tuberculosis is based on tests that are old, time consuming and not overly accurate, researchers say. But there aren’t any better options. “We don’t have a better test for humans either,” said one researcher, Shu-Hua Wang. Wang is a professor of medicine at Ohio State University and […] Read more