( eight years ago they used gene-transf...)Transgenic goat's milk offers hope for tackling children's intestinal disease

The UC Davis Study

In this study, the researchers fed pasteurized, lysozyme-rich milk produced by transgenic dairy goats to young goats and pigs. Pasteurized milk from non-transgenic goats was fed to the control group of pigs and goats.

The pigs were chosen because they have a digestive system similar to humans and are often used as a research model for humans. In this study, the pigs provide a glimpse of how such milk might impact people's digestive systems.

The kid goats were chosen for the other model in order to study the effect of the transgenic milk on ruminants -- animals like goats, sheep and cows -- which have multi-chambered stomachs.

In both animal models, the results of this study indicated that the milk from the transgenic goats was impacting the growth of digestive-tract bacteria -- although with opposite results.

The young pigs fed the lysozyme-rich milk from transgenic goats had lower levels of coliform bacteria in the small intestine, including fewer Escherichia coli (E. coli), than did the control group of young pigs that were fed milk from non-transgenic goats. Some strains of E. coli can cause severe intestinal illness.

However, the kid goats fed lysozyme-rich goat's milk, had higher levels of coliform bacteria and roughly the same level of E. coli, compared to control group.

Both the kid goats and the young pigs were healthy and exhibited normal growth patterns.

"Although the effects were different in the goats than in the pigs, the study demonstrates clearly that the consumption of pasteurized goat's milk containing human lysozyme can impact the bacterial makeup of the digestive tract in these two distinct animal models," Maga said. "It is likely that the difference
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Source:University of California - Davis