Food & Beverage Technology

Do you see a future for human-like cow's milk?

That depends on what the final cost is. There are certainly a significant number of malnourished folks on the planet.

What concerns me is that while the milk appears to be safe, we may not know the long term effect until those consuming it are adults or even elderly adults. The recent (past few decades) resurgence in breast feeding is partially due to data showing stronger immune systems of breast fed babies over formula fed babies. While modified bovine milk may not put a child at risk of a less than optimum immune system (relative to mother's milk), there may be other undesirable side affects (high propensity to eat grass? or chew one's cud?).

What concerns me is that while the milk appears to be safe,

Thats a problem, long term effect. Also you like diversity in your food supply.

OT ^{anyone by mistake put in breast milk in their coffee?}

You are right. Cow milk is well tested & consumed by human for thousands of years. Why research? In India cow milk is treated as ultimate safe & best in-take for all human beings; then why to spoil it?

I hope China will be sincere to this endeavor. Before they substituted the meat in their meat buns with paper boxes/card boards, then goes milk & biscuits with melamine. Weeehh! hope no more tricks this time.

This is almost scary. A researcher just found a new Genome in the GM corn that Monsanto is creating. It had never been seen before so he gave it a name. It is a nasty Gene that attacks proteins. This is bad enough. Problem is, Monsanto has infiltrated every aspect of the white-house and owns the USDA and FDA along with most folks in Washington. So with this "new" Bovman Milk, if Monsanto had anything at all to do with it, it will definitely pass with out any human trials in the US as they have been able to have 0 human testing, nor allow any lab in the world to check out their GM foods due to patent rights and proprietary rights. This should never be allowed when it comes to foods that animals are fed with for human consumption, nor for humans to consume untested foods.

GM anything is scary with out proper testing, as has been discovered a nasty new Genome that destroys the good proteins. And this is in the soils of the crops. No word on what it does to humans yet.

The other problem is, will there be a recall on this Milk by China if something is discovered bad about it, will the FDA mandate a recall? Or will they just allow it to be on the market regardless?

China can not handle the milk which was tainted so why should any one trust them again. This is a universally acknowledge fact and no one should deny that there is NO substitute for mother's milk. Beside health there is also bonding between mother and the child. Breasts were made for the baby to get the food and were not inntended to be toys or beauty thing. (A quote from the priest in Falls Church, Virginia) You may call me old fashioned but I shall not bring my baby up on the GM milk and will try to influence others not to use this kind of milk. Similac and others are also the same kind of baby milk and we stayed away from those milks also.

And y'all have a great day.

Regards;

Nadeem

My first response is "Was this posted on April 1?" There is something decidedly fishy about what is reported.

They implated DNA into embryos and then introduced those to surrogate cows and the surrogates gave "human" milk.

If that is correct, then the implanted embryo caused the surrogate cow's DNA to change.

I can see no credibility in the story, or else what I have learned from decades of animal husbandry has just gone out the window.

(The implication carried to an extreme is that if I mated a Hereford (beef breed) bull with a Jersey (dairy breed) cow, then the cow would miraculously (through the impact of the embryo) no longer produce milk true to her own DNA.)

China is way behind the USA.

Way behind, B.S.

embryo transplants can bring knock off 100 years off of development. And embryo's can be purchased cheaply and legally.

I must echo the concerns about long-term exposure to this milk, especially in view of its limited benefits. Replicating human milk is much more complex than just inserting a few proteins. There are at least 297 identified proteins in human milk, and many as yet unidentified components - how many did this team supposedly insert? Babies also benefit from the antibodies circulating in their mother's bodies - I have personally been knocked out by a cold and watched my nursing baby only get a sniffle. (there is also research to support this, not just my anecdotal evidence).

How many of these modified components will be affected by pasteurization? Increased lactoferrin may be good - the iron added to formula is poorly absorbed by babies and actually causes harm to the lining of their guts. The lactoferrin in breastmilk is perfect for babies - because it is human milk after all.

But I don't think this milk, even if eventually proven safe (would you volunteer your baby for the trials?) is any better than a slightly better baby formula. Necessary and important in cases when babies can't be breastfed, but not approaching the complete suitability of human milk for human babies.

Good anwer to the unknowing men. I always encouraged my wife to feed her own milk to the baby rather than Similac and others. After about six months the baby started drinking regular cow milk. As we had only one son so we did not have to go thru this many times. Now that son, 22 years old, next week, 5 feet 11 inch and 210 pounder, will be graduating from Uni of Texas in Austin with Mechanical Engineering degree in May 2011. All of his life he has been a healthy kid and now, by grace os God a healthy young man. May be many women feed the other than mother milk by fashion and think the matter of prestige. I will keep quiet on this topic.

Regards;

Nadeem

Do you see a future for human-like cow's milk?

Only if it can be produced significantly cheaper than the current cow's milk that the dairies of the world are turning out now. This looks like more "research for the sake of the grant money" than any likely real improvement.

Why don't we just farm real human milk... I'm sure there are plenty of women who would take a paycheck for a few hours worth of pumping. Heck, Maybe we can get the economy stimulated a bit while we're at it.

Hmmm...... I'll volunteer to act as the primer pump to get things going.

Nice idea