By using a virus exploited from tobacco, scientists in Shanghai have successfully produced a kind of medical vaccine proven to be effective in curing foot-and-mouth disease.

Before this, no effective vaccine has been reportedly found to be able to cure the disease, a major threat to livestock worldwide.

Scientists in Shanghai found that pathogens threatening human beings and animals do not infect vegetation, therefore, they came up with the idea of using vegetation as a biological reactor to produce a vaccine to be used on human beings and animals.

After testing the vaccine on mice carrying the foot-and-mouth virus, scientists found that their immune system was strengthened because of the vaccine and successfully enabled the mice to withstand the virus.

They believe that this new technology can be used to produce vaccines that are not only helpful for animals, but also for human beings and that since tobacco grows quickly the production cost will be relatively low.

(People's Daily 07/10/2001)