Dear Valerie
You wrote:

>I am not sure I understand your sceptism about this particular hormone (rBST)
>causing a 15% rise in mastitis.  But, let me explain that I have read various
>percentages--as low as 15% to as high as 50% depending on what research you
>happen to read.  Chairman of the Farm and Feed Society of the United Kingdom
>believes that there is a 40% increase in mastitis.  He relates data from
>Monsanto employees which mention a 35% increase in mastitis in pooled data from
>14 herds.  An epidemologist from the University of Copenhagen, Professor
>Willeberg, relates a 15-45% excess of mastitis in dairy cows injected with
>rBST.

My scepticism is I believe valid. I always become concerned when it is
stated emphatically that something (in this case rBST) CAUSES something else
(in this case mastitis). I didn¹t find any  information I read from the
sites you provided  that showed a causal link. Many may feel I am being a
picky purest however I think its really important that if what is found is,
for example: 
>a 15-45% excess of mastitis in dairy cows injected with rBST,
then what should be relayed to others is that there is an association shown
here. No  causal link is shown simply by these stats. The association is
interesting and should certainly make us question what is happening here and
trigger further "scientific (in vivo or in vitro) research" which is capable
of determining what the link may really be due to.
There are many people in the community who will take what we say at face
value and if we say "this causes that" they unquestioningly believe us.
Therefore we have a responsibility to relay information carefully so that it
is not misconstrued.

These points you make however are very interesting and are certainly very
worthy of investigating further. I will be doing a search to read up on the
papers published in this area. Thanks for bringing them to our attention.

Regards
Cathy Fetherston
Perth Western Australia

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