Pat W.

You wished for my comment.  The patent they mention is called,
"Anti-inflammatory factor, method of isolation and use,"  filed in 1994 by
Beck et al.  According to the patent they hyper-immunize cows with various
antigens--bacteria, viral, protozoan, fungal.  The method they mention is a
polyvalent vaccine every couple of weeks which stimulates the cow's immune
system. The patent uses an ultra-filtration system to separate out the
protein they need.  I do suspect that since they are using special "New
Zealand" cows that they are using transgenic cows--meaning a human gene was
placed in a cow embryo that in adulthood will express a human protein in its
milk.

I suspect that they are using transgenics because of their advertisement.  Of
course it is not human breastmilk.  I guess we could call it hucow milk or
cowhu milk---whatever....cloned cowmilk.  Transgenics has been in existence
since 1985.  There are herds (mentioned this many times before)--one herd is
in New Zealand.  Milk lactoferrin got FDA GRAS status and that is transgenic
milk--cows expressing human lactoferrin in their milk.  Colostrum supplements
come from this process (often New Zealand cows).

This company is using the fact that a certain human milk protein helps
inactivate the inflammatory response (bravo human milk).  I think we are
going to see more of this kind of advertising.  Maybe at some point people
will recognize the value of breastfeeding through this kind of advertising or
maybe they will just use the substitute products.  It is why I say that the
competitor of breastfeeding is not just the infant formula industry but also
the pharmaceutical and dairy industries.  No need to wonder why it is so
difficult to get some sensible information on breastfeeding out to the
consumer.  We have the mega industries to deal with and they certainly are
playing for keeps.  Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

PS  This particular concept--hyperimmunization of milk-- was what the patent
application on human milk by Medo was mentioning as a possibility.  The
patent suggested vaccinating human milk donors to produce specific proteins
for use in the pharmaceutical industry. The reason I found the application so
upsetting.  The mammary gland is considered a bioreactor--a mini-drug
factory.  Animal mammary gland products often create an allergic response in
many humans--thus the importance of transgenics and or using human milk banks
to harvest those proteins.

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