OSU has signed a licensing agreement with an Iowa based laboratory that commercially produces vaccines. The OSU scientists are currently field testing a product that is grown in tick cell cultures. They believe that this will alleviate some of the problems encountered by previous vaccines. The older vaccine was developed from cells in cattle and could cause a severe anemia in calves nursing immunized cows. The new vaccine is being developed in the Oklahoma region, however to insure that it will work nationwide, the researchers are collecting ticks from regions such as Florida and Virginia.
Work is yet to done to achieve a marketable vaccine.
No definite timeline can be established as to when all of the testing is done and approved. The best case scenario gives us hope that a vaccine could be on the market in two to three years.