World Dairy Diary

Ranathunga began his Master’s program at SDSU in dairy cattle nutrition under Kalscheur after completing an M.S. in Biochemistry at Pukyong National University in Busan, South Korea.

His Master’s research demonstrated that the non-forage fiber provided from DDGS and soyhulls can effectively replace starch provided by corn in dairy cow diets without negatively affecting the performance of dairy cows.

Fermented milks are consumed in many parts of the world for their acidic taste and health benefits. Some strains of lactic acid bacteria used in making fermented milks produce exopolysaccharides, or EPS – polymers usually high in molecular weight that are made up of sugar residues and are secreted by microorganisms such as bacteria.

Exopolysaccharides are associated with factors such as the smoothness and creaminess of fermented milk products and some may also have chemopreventive properties, meaning they can prevent tumor development.

“Reports in the literature showed chemopreventive activities of polysaccharides from mushrooms. Since the structure of such polysaccharides is somehow similar to that in the bacterial EPS, we expected bacterial EPS to show similar activities,” Hassan says.

He adds that there is a correlation between molecular characteristics of polysaccharides from mushrooms and their chemopreventive activities.

For the study, rats were on diets supplemented with different fermented milks made with differing strains of EPS-producing or non-producing cultures. Rats fed diets supplemented with fermented milk made with two EPS-positive strains and one EPS-negative strain had significantly lowered incidence of colon tumors compared to the other groups.

Distinguished professor Chandradhar Dwivedi, research associate Ekta Bhatia, and graduate research assistant Xiaoying Zhang, all of SDSU’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, also participated in the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Dairy Science.

The SDSU study has important implications because cancer causes about 13 percent of all deaths and is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Colon cancer is the third most prevalent cancer in the United States, accounting for about 10 percent of cancer deaths in men and women.

As researchers learn more, Hassan said, it may become possible to craft dairy products with known disease-fighting properties.

Scientists asked 972 men and women to fill in detailed surveys on their diets, including how often they consumed dairy products, even if only having milk in their tea and coffee.

The subjects, aged 23 to 98, then completed a series of eight rigorous tests to check their concentration, memory and learning abilities.

In some of the tests, adults who rarely consumed dairy products were five times more likely to fail compared with those who had them between two and four times a week.

The researchers, from the University of Maine in the U.S., believe certain nutrients in dairy products, such as magnesium, could help to stave off memory loss.

But researchers say this is the first short-term study to show adding dairy products to the diets of people already diagnosed with gout can reduce gout attacks and symptoms.

Gout is a form of arthritis that causes sudden attacks of burning pain, stiffness, and swelling in a joint, usually a big toe. It occurs when there is too much uric acid in the body.

Normally, the kidneys rid the body of excess uric acid in the form of urine. But when the body produces too much uric acid or the kidneys aren’t functioning properly, the uric acid can form hard crystals in the joints.

In this study, researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand looked at the effects of drinking a skim milk powder enriched with two dairy components, glycomacropeptide (GMP) and G600 milk fat extract (G600), on the frequency of gout attacks in 102 people.

The people were divided into three groups. They drank either the enriched milk powder, a plain skim milk powder, or a lactose powder mixed with water as a vanilla-flavored shake each day.

After three months, the frequency of gout attacks dropped in all three groups. But those who drank the enriched skim milk had a significantly bigger reduction in gout attacks than those in the other two groups.

The enriched skim milk group also had more improvements in pain-related gout symptoms, fewer tender joints, and lower levels of uric acid in their urine.

In a double-blind trial, researchers investigated the effect of vitamin D on the glycemic status, cholesterol levels and endothelial biomarkers of diabetics. Patients were given either a plain yogurt drink or the same drink fortified with vitamin D, twice a day for 12 weeks.

Patients who had taken the vitamin D yogurt also had improved cholesterol levels with lower total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein, the “bad,” cholesterol and an increase in high-density lipoprotein, the “good,” cholesterol.

All the improvements in cholesterol seemed to be due to the reduction in insulin resistance, the study said.

“Historically, the lack of semi-commercial scale pilot equipment in the United States has limited the ability of manufacturers to develop and introduce new dairy ingredients for domestic and global use,” said Lloyd Metzger, director, Midwest Dairy Foods Research at SDSU. “In the past, a dairy-based ingredient manufacturer wanting to test a new product or new system at their plant needed to shut down an entire production line in order to do so. This practice resulted in lost manufacturing time and potential product failure due to lack of real commercial scale-up measurements needed to test production of a new ingredient. The Institute for Dairy Ingredient Processing now provides manufacturers with the means to evaluate the commercial feasibility of full-scale production.”

The $10 million expansion of the South Dakota State University Davis Dairy Plant was funded by dairy farmers through Midwest Dairy Association and the American Dairy Association of South Dakota, dairy processors, dairy suppliers, alumni and friends of the SDSU Foundation, the State of South Dakota and South Dakota State University.

Grafton Village Cheese in Brattleboro provided whey, Effluent from gas production was applied to Russian confrey plants in a greenhouse environment.

That effluent made the plants grow faster. Renewable natural gas can be used as a fuel for heat and electric generators, and even potentially as a transportation fuel. The proposal is titled “Fuel Crop Cultivation for Remediating Methane Digester Effluent from Dairy Whey.”

“Vermont produces 1 billion pounds of whey per year. Generally, the whey is disposed of through municipal waste treatment facilities and this is expensive. We are producing renewable natural gas from whey now,” said project researcher Steve Redmond.

“Fermenting whey on its own is a relatively new and difficult technology and we’ve worked on a whey digester for the last year, which I’ve been using and producing gas,” he said. “And we’re trying to get the amount of time it takes for the whey to be digested into natural gas down as small as possible because otherwise a plant that did this would to be too big.”

Redmond has crafted a digester with a bacteria culture in it that produces the equivalent to natural gas from whey. He has taken a process that takes an estimated 30 days on a farm to digest the whey fully into methane down to four days.

But even when the energy is remove from the whey, other materials like nitrogen remains and Redmond wants to keep those byproducts from entering the streams and brooks.

The research, published in a CDC report titled “Low-fat Milk Consumption Among Children and Adolescents in the United States, 2007-2008,” showed that about 73 percent of children and teens drink milk, but only about 20 percent of them say they usually drink low-fat milk (skim or 1 percent).

Lead researcher Steve Ingham said he did the study because he wanted to see whether there was a link between milk quality and the size of a dairy farm. He said the results cast doubt on the perception that big dairies can’t matcher smaller ones in terms of quality.

“Certainly, the small-is-better blanket statement doesn’t appear to be true,” said Ingham, who started the study when he was a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is now a food safety division administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

But a group that represents small farms said the study was irrelevant because of the way it defined milk quality. It looked at the amount of certain cells and bacteria in milk, which are factors agriculture inspectors use to evaluate cows’ health and farms’ cleanliness.

Because he used data exclusively from Wisconsin, the nation’s second-leading milk producer behind California, Ingham said he wasn’t sure whether the results would apply elsewhere, especially in warmer states where bacterial growth might be harder to prevent.

He said the perception that smaller was better seemed to spring from the belief that small farmers have a greater incentive to collect milk hygienically and avoid taxing their cows with over-milking.

However, he noted, larger operators also have an incentive to keep their herds healthy, including by removing cows that have udder infections so they don’t infect others. Bigger farms also keep bacterial counts down by investing in better sanitation and refrigeration equipment, he said.

Jayme Sellen, spokeswoman for the Dairy Business Association, which represents Wisconsin dairy farmers, said the study just shows that all dairies produce safe milk and consumers shouldn’t be concerned.

· Nutrition of high-producing Jerseys, particularly practical feeding methods to maximize production of valuable milk components;
· Factors affecting management of Jersey calves;
· Factors affecting yield and/or quality of products manufactured from Jersey milk;
· Factors affecting economic impact of Jerseys: efficiencies, net income, longevity, and lifetime profit;
· Optimizing the genetic basis for improving animal health and/or enhancing product quality;
· Enhancing environmental impact associated with Jerseys;
· New technologies for safe and sustainable food production from Jersey cattle; and
· Feasibility of adding value and increasing consumer acceptance of Jersey-derived products through enhanced product quality and branding.

Application deadline is Thursday, December 1, 2011. The Research Advisory Committee of the American Jersey Cattle Association will evaluate the proposals, then forward its recommendations to the AJCA Board of Directors, which will award funds at its meeting in March 2012.

The interplay between economic systems and the nutritional value of food is particularly relevant today as we look ahead to increased longevity and aiming to improve public health across the globe. Coordinated by conference manager Irene Lenoir-Wijnkoop, an expert in nutrition economics at Danone Research as well as a member of the IDF Standing Committee on Nutrition and Health, a series of prestigious speakers will present recent findings and initiatives within this emerging science.

In addition, the conference “Dairy Products: A Healthy Choice” will focus on leading science projects in the health and nutrition area. On 16-17 October participants are invited to attend this three part conference, with presentations on the positive nutritional impact of dairy products, healthy aspects of specific nutrients in dairy, and how to address age-related nutritional needs with dairy.

Finally, on October 18, the Marketing Conference will showcase new thinking in dairy marketing following the theme: “Conveying the Benefits of Dairy to Consumers”. Presentations will concentrate on new strategic communication techniques such as social media, suggesting innovative ways to deliver positive dairy nutrition messages. Through exploring approaches followed in current and future campaigns this conference aims to develop a united approach and to make the dairy sector be once again top of mind for consumers.

One of the most notable findings of the survey is the increased use of diagnostic testing on calves both before and after weaning. Twenty-two percent of operations surveyed use tissue sample testing on at least one calf that died of respiratory disease each year, and 72 percent have at least one necropsy performed. The 2007 NAHMS study, by comparison, reports that eight percent of herds have had necropsies performed on calves before weaning and 7.1 percent on calves after weaning, for all causes of death, including respiratory disease.

Producers now do a much better job monitoring their calves for failure of passive transfer (FPT) of immunoglobulins than they did four years ago. According to the survey, the number of calf raisers who routinely check for FPT grew to 45 percent from just two percent in 2007.

The survey also shows that producers have responded to the message that calves need to be fed at a higher plane of nutrition and more frequently. Nutrition programs where calves are fed at least 1.5 pounds of milk replacer or five quarts of non-saleable milk or a combination of non-saleable milk and milk replacer are used in two-thirds of small- and medium-sized herds and one-fourth in large herds.

The percentage of producers who pasteurize non-saleable milk fed to calves has grown from 8.4 percent to 72 percent since 2007. Additionally, eight percent of calves are being fed at least three times per day year round, and 14 percent are fed three times per day in the winter.

The study calls attention to the need for standardization of vaccination and treatment protocols. Although 80 percent of producers surveyed have been trained by their veterinarians to identify and treat respiratory disease, less than half have veterinary assistance in designing treatment protocols. Additionally, while 96 percent of producers surveyed vaccinate their calves for respiratory disease, there is no consistency in vaccination protocols.

“This grant will help take the industry’s heritage of dairy stewardship to a new business level,” said Bob Foster, owner, Foster Brothers Farm in Middlebury, Vt. “As dairy producers, we know that consumers want products that are not only nutritious and good-tasting, but also environmentally friendly. We have long been committed to stewardship, but have not had a science-based tool to identify and measure practices that reduce costs and environmental impact.”

The grant, awarded through a nationwide competitive process, is made available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA’s) Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The first stage in developing the toolkit will be to establish a set of on-farm sustainability indicators that will be pilot-tested on farms. A broad group of stakeholders from the dairy industry and other experts will determine which indicators best describe the quality and quantity of economic, social and environmental value provided by farms. Indicators could include, for example: a farm’s contribution to the local community through jobs and community relations; energy efficiency; food safety and quality; water quality and use; waste management; and greenhouse gas emissions.

The toolkit will be national in scope. At least 12 dairy producers within 10 regions across the country will participate in pilot tests. The 120 producer volunteers will represent a diverse set of farms, including small- and large-scale dairies, dairies with varying milk production methods, and both conventional and organic dairies. On-farm pilot tests in the designated areas will begin in October.

When completed, the toolkit will enable producers to generate an analysis of their stewardship practices and help them communicate positive contributions their farm businesses have made to neighbors, community groups, consumers and customers.

The U.S. dairy industry is developing best practices and decision-support tools for producers, processors, manufacturers, transport and retail through a voluntary, industrywide effort to measure and improve dairy sustainability. The toolkit is an important first component of the Farm Smart project, which is creating a series of on-field decision-support tools for dairy and crop production management.

The report is based on a recent collaboration between U.S. agricultural industry leaders and top scientists specializing in contagious animal disease, and is entitled “Enhancing Ag Resiliency: The Agricultural Industry Perspective of Utilizing Agricultural Screening Tools.”

“This collaboration between industry, science and policy marks a significant step toward developing and utilizing screening technologies for high consequence disease detection,” said Dr. Tammy Beckham, director of the FAZD Center. “To best meet the needs of our end-users and stakeholders, new screening tools should fit easily into day-to-day business operations and support business continuity during an outbreak situation.”

The report is the product of a recent workshop convened by the Department of Homeland Security and the FAZD Center. Participants included leading foreign animal and emerging disease diagnostic experts from the U.S. and the United Kingdom, as well as leaders from the nation’s beef, dairy, pork, poultry, sheep and goat industries.

This workshop was the second held to date in a series of collaborative discussions on the development and deployment of agricultural screening tools. Some priorities defined by the participants, are:

· Develop agricultural screening tools that can be used to permit movement of animals that do not have clinical signs of disease and associated animal products (e.g., milk), especially during an outbreak or recovery period.

· Validate assays that are currently being used for testing, such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), for use with additional matrices, including milk (such as from bulk milk tanks), oral fluids (such as from saliva-drenched ropes), meat juice, air and environmental samples, and blood, especially for testing for foot-and-mouth disease virus.

· Validate pooling of samples to test for foreign animal diseases, including optimal pooling of swabs or similar specimens for key poultry diseases and optimal pooling of animal blood and/or swab samples, especially for foot-and-mouth detection.

· Develop simple, low-cost, field-deployable devices for nucleic acid extraction and/or amplification.

· Develop and validate serological tests for “disease free” testing and develop associated policies for using those tests.

Participants also discussed other critical needs, such as developing a more robust information technology infrastructure for reporting and sharing laboratory test results.

Lead researcher John L. Ivy of the University of Texas at Austin says researchers in three related studies compared the recovery benefits of drinking low-fat chocolate milk after exercise to a carbohydrate beverage with the same calories — similar to a typical sports drink — and calorie-free beverages.

The study linked drinking low-fat chocolate milk after strenuous exercise to:

– Improved performance: Trained cyclists had significantly more power and rode faster, shaving about 6 minutes, on average, from their ride time when they recovered with low-fat chocolate milk compared to a carbohydrate sports drink and calorie-free beverage.

– Quicker exercise adaptation: Compared to those who consumed other recovery drinks, chocolate milk drinkers had twice the improvement in the measure of aerobic fitness and adaptation.

– Better body composition: Chocolate milk drinkers gained more muscle and lost more fat during training, with a 3-pound lean muscle advantage at the end of the 4.5 weeks compared to athletes who drank a carbohydrate drink.

“Collectively, our research suggests that low-fat chocolate milk — easily accessible for most athletes — can improve performance and aid training for trained and amateur athletes faced with tough routines,” Ivy said in a statement.

Researchers from Brown University analyzed data from 3,630 Costa Rican men and women and found that their dairy consumption had no statistical relevance to their risk of heart attack.

The two Brown University researchers, Stella Aslibekyan and Ana Baylin, used data from an epidemiological study conducted between 1994 and 2004 by study co-author Hannia Campos of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Aslibekyan and Baylin broke the study’s men and women into quintiles according to their dairy consumption and discovered that there was no significant linear relationship between dairy consumption and heart risks. At the high end of the spectrum, dairy consumption averaged 593 grams per day.

When they broke the study participants up into two groups, those who had survived a heart attack and those who never had a heart attack, the researchers found that the dairy intake among the heart attack survivors was not statistically different from those who never had a heart attack.

To further refine the results, the researchers screened for risk factors such as smoking, waist-to-hip ratio, alcohol intake, and physical activity. Again, the study demonstrated no significant association between dairy consumption and heart attack risk.

Aslibekyan and Baylin hypothesized that other nutrients in dairy products may help protect against heart attacks. On the flip side, they said were not ready to declare saturated fats to be safe.

“Things like milk and cheese are very complex substances,” said Aslibekyan. “We looked at [heart attack risk and] dairy products in their entirety and then looked at separate components of those dairy products, including fats, and it turns out that the results are null. Perhaps the evidence is not there.”