eal disease germs (How Do Vaccines 2001).Many pathogens enter the body through the nose, mouth, or other openings (Landrige 2000). Hence, the first defenses they encounter are those in the mucous membranes that line the airways, the digestive tract and the reproductive tract; these membranes constitute the biggest pathogen-deterring surface in the body. When the mucosal immune response if effective, it generates molecules know as secretory antibodies that dash into cavities of those pathways to neutralize any pathogens they find (Landrige 2000). Injected vaccines initially bypass mucous membranes and typically do a poor job of stimulating mucosal immune responses. However, edible vaccines come in contact with the lining of the digestive tract. In theory, then they would activate both mucosal and systemic immunity (Landrige 2000). That dual effect should help improve protection against many dangerous microorganisms.Classic vaccines pose a small, but troubling, risk that the vaccine microorganisms will somehow spring back to life, and cause the diseases that they were meant to prevent (Landrige 2000). It is for this reason that subunit vaccines are used. A subuint vaccine is composed primarily of antigenic proteins divorced from a pathogen’s genes (Landrige 2000). These proteins have no way of establishing an infection on their own. However, subunit vaccines are very expensive, and food vaccines are like subunit vaccines in that they are engineered to contain antigens, but bear no genes that would enable whole pathogens to form (Landrige 2000).Food vaccines are going to place a high priority on combating diarrhea (Landrige 2000). The main causes of diarrhea are Norwalk virus, rotavirus, Vibrio Chloerae (the cause of cholera) and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (a toxin-producing source of “traveler’s diarrhea”). These diseases account for some three million infant deaths a year, however mainly in devel...
