Colostrum and Brucella

September 30, 2009; By Dr. Anthony Kleinsmith

Filed Under: Bovine Colostrum  Colostrum Health  

Dear consumer,

Your question regarding the presence of Brucella in colostrum has been forwarded to me. I am a business and technology consultant with extensive knowledge regarding the formation and composition of bovine colostrum and its health-related applications in humans and animals.

This is an interesting question since Brucella infections do occur in cows, as they do in several other mammalian species. There are four species of Brucella that can be transmitted from animals to man and, interestingly, they are unique to each of their hosts and are named after the host type that they usually infect and/or what effect they have in that host. The four species are Brucella abortus (cattle), Brucella suis (swine), Brucella melitensis (goats) and Brucella canis (dogs). Brucella can enter the body via the skin, respiratory tract or digestive tract. Once in the body, the organism multiplies intracellulary. It can enter the blood and lymphatics where it multiplies inside of phagocytic cells and can eventually cause bacteremia. Afflicted individuals are usually treated with streptomycin or erythromycin.



When Brucella infects pregnant cattle, it attacks the placenta and invariably induces abortion. Dairy and beef cattle producers are very aware of this ramification of infection and, thus, take extraordinary measures to assure that Brucella does not enter the herd. In the event that Brucella abortus did infect a dairy herd, it would never be found in the colostrum since colostrum formation occurs just prior to the birth of the calf and is hormonally controlled by progesterone's influence on the placenta. In a pregnant cow, infection would result in abortion and expulsion of the placenta so colostrum formation would not occur. It is also not found in milk intended for human consumption since it is, by law, flash pasteurized at 161F for 20 seconds. To the best of my knowledge, the colostrum used to produce Immune-Tree's colostrum powder is similarly pasteurized. I hope that this answers your question.

To your good health - always.

Sincerely,
Alfred E. Fox, Ph.D.

Dr. Alfred E. Fox holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in Microbiology (Immunochemistry) and has more than 25 years of senior management experience at Carter-Wallace, Baxter Dade Division and Warner-Lambert, where he was responsible for research and development and regulatory affairs. He was also the founder and president of two biotechnology companies focused on agribusiness and environmental monitoring, respectively. For the past 15 years, Dr. Fox has been the President of Fox Associates, a business and technology consulting firm serving small- to mid-size companies in the human and animal healthcare fields. He focuses primarily on marketing and regulatory issues and for the past 10 years has continuously consulted to bovine colostrum manufacturers, where he has gained regulatory approval for their products, been a technical advisor, helped design and develop marketing strategies and served as an expert witness in legal matters.