Dear Lact-netters,

I am so happy to be here.  This type of exchange of information was is just
what I want.  A quick hello to the many, many familiar "faces."

In light of the post last week about collaboration between the dairy industry
and the human lactation researchers, I am motivated to reveal my presence and
my past.  I came to where I am by the way of Animal Science.  I went to the
University of Florida and received my BS in Agriculture/Animal Science and
also taught at one of the Animal Science teaching units.

I have long thought that the attitudes towards species specific milk in both
the dairy and equine industries had a very positive impact on both my own
mothering and my developing interest in the field of lactation.  Further, the
knowledge about dairy lactation was (at the time--10+ yrs. ago) probably ahead
of the amount of information in the field of human lactation.  It all doesn't
match up, of course, we are different types of mammals, but the basic info was
a good foundation.

There are some areas of collaboration, which, if they haven't been done, would
be helpful for the animal science industry.  It was impressed upon us that all
young animals HAD TO receive the colostrum of their mother, optimally, and
another of the herd if this was impossible.  We were taught how to preserve
and freeze colostrum and carry it in the truck in case we came across a calf
or foal whose mother wouldn't let it nurse or who was having problems getting
started.  It would be more beneficial for them to carry fresh, chilled
colostrum.  The storage time of human milk would lead us to hypothesize that
animal colostrum would also probably store for a long enough time to make this
worth their while.  Especially, in the dairy industry where the fresh
colostrum can be easily replenished with each subsequent birth.

Of course, for those of you that know horses, this presents a completely
different set of problems.  Maybe one of the bfing equipment supply companies
should create an extra insert for their small manual pumps to fit the teats of
a horse and possibly a motor cover (to reduce noise) for their small handheld
electric pumps.  The enormous value of racehorses would probably make this a
desireable item for the foaling barn manager.

I am currently a La Leche League Leader in CT and have been for 5 yrs.  My
husband is a teacher and we have 3 children (7, 5, and 2) and are expecting
our fourth baby in June.  I teach breastfeeding classes at our local hospital
with the resident LC and have just started a pump depot.  I plan to sit for
the LC exam this summer.  This pregnancy was a bit of a surprise, so I hope it
won't be as hard to do as I fear.

Oh, one last thing, if one of you does succeed in the cloning mentioned this
week, I will have a bountiful supply of newborn milk come June.....

Karen Seroussi
LLL Leader
Norwich, CT