To Dr. Epstein

Dear Dr. Epstein of the Organic Consumers Association,

It has come to my attention that a good part of your concern for hormone use in dairy cattle production comes from your concern for the cows' well being and health. The statement that “rBST milk is contaminated by pus, due to mastitis, an infection of the udder commonly induced by the hormone, and also by antibiotics used to treat the mastitis” rings true in that several surveys have shown an increase in cases of mastitis in hormone treated cows. One must wonder if the hormones being injected into the cow's body are harmful to the animals themselves, as opposed to the growing concern of the effects they would have on human consumers. Despite research that shows that hormone use in dairy cows is safe for consumers, the environment, and the cows themselves, this apparent association between increased cases of infection and hormone use subsists. There has been data collected to show that the use of rBST increases the risk of udder infections by 25%, and further the risk of lameness by 50% which all together seems to disprove the statement made above.

I am glad to say however that with growing concern from the public for their health, the use of hormone treated cows have decreased. In fact, major providers such as Dean industries have decided to go about this controversy by simply banning hormone-treated milk products. Larger suppliers such as Walmart have stopped buying from suppliers that get their milk products from hormone treated cows and have turned rather to providers of organic milk sources. With this trend, the demand for untreated cows may increase phasing out the use of recombinant hormones altogether. But in the meanwhile, mastitis in cows is being detected and treated at highly effective rates. The California mastitis test is one type of test used to detect mastitis in which a four-well plastic paddle is used to mix milk drawn with test reagent to produce either a negative (mixture unchanged) or positive result (solid gel or particle formation). These tests are conducted routinely in dairy production to ensure that no infected milk is transferred into the human consumer market. Further research is being done to find cost-effective means of treating mastitis cases with a rather natural form of vitamin D (prehormone 25- Hydroxyvitamin D) which will ideally alter the response of the cow's immune system in defense against mastitis infection. With further observation, direct injection of Vitamin D into the infected quarter of the mammary gland resulted in significant reductions in bacterial counts and clinical signs of severe infection.

Although there are other methods out there that are still a work in progress, the humane efforts of cattle production whether for meat or milk have come a long ways. Humane treatment of cows in production has resulted from modern research to provide not only basic care, but also comfort and enrichment within their primary environments. But, nonetheless, behavioral and scientific research continues to this day to always improve the situations in which we keep our domesticated animals.

Sources:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19391.cfm
http://www.stonyfield.com/blog/no-artificial-hormones-and-antibiotics/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_mastitis_test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkkQ9TmiM94
http://ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2012/120618.htm