This experiment examined the effect of dietary spray-dried bovine colostrum on intestinal histology and organ weights in early-weaned pigs. In a randomised complete block design, twelve 14-day-old weaner pigs were offered a diet containing either 5% spray-dried bovine colostrum or no colostrum (control). Diets were formulated to contain 14.8 MJ/kg DE, 1.26% available lysine and to meet or excee...

Nutraceutical, a term combining the words "nutrition" and "pharmaceuticals", is a food or food product that provides health benefits as an adjuvant or alternative therapy, including the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases in children and adults. There is emerging evidence that bovine colostrum (BC) may be one of the promising nutraceuticals which can prevent or mitigate various dise...

Glucocorticoids and colostrum feeding influence postnatal maturation of the somatotropic axis. We have tested the hypothesis that dexamethasone (Dexa) affects the somatotropic axis in neonatal calves dependent on colostrum intake. Calves were fed either with colostrum or with a milk-based formula (n = 14/group), and, in each feeding group, one-half of the calves were treated with Dexa (30 micro...

Colostrum, as a bioactive substance for humans, could be a functional food ingredient ; today colostrum products are the object of health claims, even on line, especially from some foreign Countries. The aim of the present paper is to assess the quality of bovine colostrum samples taken in some farms in Sicily and in Calabria, in view of lack of information on physical and chemical and safety c...

Here, we used a sheep bioassay to determine the effect of freezing colostrum to prevent the transmission of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) among neonatal calves. Leukocytes were isolated from the colostrum of a BLV-infected Holstein cow and were then either left untreated (control) or freeze-thawed. A sheep inoculated intraperitoneally with the untreated leukocytes was infected with BLV at 3 weeks...

BACKGROUND Gc protein-derived macrophage-activating factor (GcMAF) immunotherapy has been steadily advancing over the last two decades. Oral colostrum macrophage-activating factor (MAF) produced from bovine colostrum has shown high macrophage phagocytic activity. GcMAF-based immunotherapy has a wide application for use in treating many diseases via macrophage activation or for use as supportive...

BACKGROUND Toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular protozoan parasite able to infect a wide range of hosts, including humans. Congenital infection can cause severe damage to the fetus. Thus, it is important to detect antibodies against the parasite to confirm clinical manifestations. Considering that all immunoglobulin isotypes may be present in biological samp...

OBJECTIVE To determine the immunologic effects of oropharyngeal colostrum administration in extremely premature infants. METHODS We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial involving 48 preterm infants born before 28 weeks' gestation. Subjects received 0.2 mL of their mother's colostrum or sterile water via oropharyngeal route every 3 hours for 3 days beginning at 48 to ...

There is limited information available about the relationship between dry period shortening and calves health and their performance. One-hundred twenty Holstein cows and their calves were used to evaluate dry period length on colostrum quality and calves health. Treatments were arranged in a 3×2×2 factorial design that included dry period (30-d, 42-d and 56-d), parity (primiparous or multiparou...

In day 1 cow colostrum neutralising antibody titres to human rotavirus ranged from 400 to 6400 while the IgA and IgG content was 23-170 mg/dl and 1500-4200 mg/dl, respectively. Both titres and Ig concentrations were lower in colostrum from days 2 and 3. Market milk contained little IgA or IgG and few neutralising antibodies. Because the human jejunum contains 200 Ilg/ml trypsin we treated colos...