Alicia-
The speaker did not clarify exactly what she meant by a detergent step.
She was concerned that heat treatment alone (at a level low enough to
avoid denaturing all the proteins in the milk as well as the virus) would
not be 100% effective.  She felt that the cell membrane of the
virus--which is essentially the same as that of the T-lymphocyte the
virus had infected--needed to be disrupted to be completely sure that the
milk would not be infectious.  She did not have any data at hand to
support this, however.  She did have an extensive reference list for her
talk.  I'll let you know if I find any more info in any of the articles I
pull.  I'd be interested if anyone else has any info about the
effectiveness of pastuerization.

--
Anne Montgomery, M.D.
[log in to unmask]
St.Peter Hospital Family Practice Residency
Olympia, WA