Research supports pasteurizing colostrum

Dr. Rob Tremblay

Good colostrum management is one of the keys to good calf health. Good management means feeding enough good quality colostrum soon enough after birth. The rule of thumb for Holsteins is to feed 4 liters within 6 hours of birth. Over the last few years, it has also become apparent that you need to make sure the colostrum is as free of bacteria as possible. That means prepping the udder before harvesting colostrum, storing it in clean containers and refrigerating it if it is going to be a few hours before it is fed.

 The recent focus on preventing the spread of Johne’s disease has also fueled interest in pasteurizing colostrum. Pasteurizing both milk and colostrum is an option because it isn’t always easy to tell determine which cows are infected with the Johne’s bacterium to allow you to avoid using their milk to feed calves. It is feasible to use on farm pasteurization for both milk and colostrum. There are two types of small pasteurizer that could be used on farms, continuous flow and batch. Batch pasteurizers are more appropriate for colostrum.

 One of the concerns about pasteurizing colostrum is worry that the pasteurization could destroy or, at least partially, inactivate the antibody in colostrum. Researchers in Minnesota looked at how well batch pasteurization worked at lower the number of bacteria in colostrum. They then fed the pasteurized colostrum to calves and measured how well the immunity in the colostrum had been passed on to the calf. They split pools of colostrum then pasteurized half. They compared immunity in calves fed the pasteurized half to calves fed the unpasteurized half. The colostrum was pasteurized in a commercial on-farm batch pasteurizer at 60°C for 1 hour.

 They found that pasteurization reduced the number of bacteria in the colostrum. They also found that calves fed the pasteurized colostrum actually had better uptake of the immunity in the colostrum. Pasteurization appeared to have no impact on the nutritional value of colostrum. Calves fed pasteurized colostrum were no different in their blood concentrations of vitamin A, vitamin E, cholesterol or β-carotene compared to calves fed fresh colostrum.

 The cow normally transfers some of her white blood cells to the calf through her colostrum. Freezing colostrum tends to destroy these white blood cells. It was not clear from the research in Minnesota if pasteurization destroyed the cow’s white blood cells too.

 There are other options that dairy and beef farmers can use if they are concerned about the safety of their own colostrum. There are a number of colostrum and antibody products on the market. Most of these products are not true replacements for the cow’s own colostrum because they do not have enough antibodies in them. The low antibody products are sold as colostrum supplements. That means they are not meant to replace the cow’s colostrum. There is at least one product that is made from cow’s colostrum and has enough antibodies that it could be used instead of the cow’s own colostrum.