In 1981, the first genetically engineered vaccine was announced: the first effective subunit vaccine for any animal or human disease using gene splicing. It was designed to prevent hoof and mouth disease (FMD). The work was done by the U.S. Dept of Agriculture scientists who by 1975 had discovered that injection of VP3 (a protein derived from a portion of the coating of FMD virus) confers immunity to the disease. In 1980, the USDA team turned to recombinant DNA technology, and collaborated with scientists from Genentech, a private company. They inserted a bioengineered plasmid containing the gene for VP3 into Escherichia coli bacteria which grew obeying orders from the guest DNA, mass-producing the VP3 proteins for the vaccine.