This news story in Canada highlights how important species-specific milk is.  Canadian Blood Services was called in to process elephant blood to provide a special transfusion of elephant antibodies and enzymes for the baby.  Too bad Canadian babies won't receive the same extraodinary efforts.

"The unnamed infant is being cared for by zookeepers, because her mother won't let her feed. She is being fed by hand every few hours, and keepers are providing 24-hour care.

But the formula doesn't have the same nutrients and antibodies that would be available in the mother's milk, and orphaned elephants usually have a 50 per cent chance of survival."


CTV News and video clip:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1101433660134_19?hub=Canada

CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/11/26/elephant-calgary041126.html

blood transfusion story:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20041126/ca_pr_on_na/elephant_baby_transfusion_1

Janice Reynolds
Saskatchewan, Canada


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