Application of instrumental methods for quality control of lactoferrin and raw materials for its production

Bovine cattle milk lactoferrin is industrially produced from cow’s milk and used in a variety of functional products, including baby food, nutritional supplements, dairy products, and veterinary drugs. The possibility of obtaining lactoferrin from lactic acid milk wheyrises a particular interest. The purpose of this study is to assess the possibility of using and adapting existing spectrophotometric methods for determining the concentration of total protein and an electrophoretic method for analyzing the protein composition of whey fractions and lactoferrin substances. A comparative study of two methods for determining the total protein in whey fractions and lactoferrin preparations biuret and Bradford method was carried out. The validation parameters of both methods were defined. An analytical range from 30 μg / ml to 1000 μg / ml characterizes the linearity of the Bradford method. The electrophoretic profile of milk, milk whey, whey fractions and substances of lactoferrinwere analyzed. The results obtained indicate a high information content of the electrophoretic method for characterizing the purification efficiency of whey fractions.

Stomach function in relation to a scour syndrome in the piglet

1. Piglets were left to suckle their dam for about 2 days after birth to obtain colostrum and were then divided into four groups. One group was left with the sow, the second was given a standard liquid diet based on cow's milk, the third the standard diet with lactic acid added to give a pH of 4.8, and the fourth the standard diet with the casein content increased by 50%. Stomach samples were removed at intervals by stomach tube for pH measurements and bacteriological investigations. The tube was used immediately to give barium sulphate for radiographic examinations and was then withdrawn. Comparisons were made between treatments and between scouring and non-scouring piglets.2. A diarrhoeic (scour) syndrome frequently developed; this was always preceded by diminishing gastric activity leading to gastric stasis. When spontaneous recovery occurred, there was a return of gastric function before recovery from scours and before the resumption of normal weight gain.3. The incidence, duration and severity of the scour syndrome was less in piglets left on the sow; these differences could not be ascribed to the effect of colostrum. Piglets receiving the lactic acid milk diet had an average gastric pH of 1 unit less than the other piglets. Although the severity of scour and loss of clinical condition was less in the piglets given lactic acid milk the duration of reduced stomach motility was the same as in the other artificially fed piglets.4. No obvious correlation was shown between the scour syndrome and the bacterial flora of the stomach or the intestines. The gastro-intestinal tracts of the piglets given lactic acid milk contained fewer bacteria than those of the piglets on the other diets.5. Gross between-treatment differences at post-mortem were evident only in the stomach.6. The spontaneous scour syndrome observed under the conditions of these experiments appeared not to be of bacterial origin but to be associated with a physiological malfunction of the stomach.