It's Not

(not)
Just For Grown-Ups Anymore.

Section I: (introduction)


Milk. It's been a staple for ages among children, adolescents and adults. We're told milk helps build strong teeth and bones and healthy bodies and baby cows. And that's not all there is to know about milk, the wonder-liquid dairy product.

To increase milk production in cows, scientists have found a way to produce bovine somatotrophin (bST) through recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering). Recombinant bST is virtually identical to a cow's natural somatotrophin, a hormone produced in its pituitary gland that stimulates milk production. Injecting recombinant bST can increase a cow's milk production by 10 to 15 percent.


Section II: (scientific datas)

Cows make milk. Cows eat grass to make milk. Grass eats dirt to make grass for cows to eat. Dirt is made of people who died a long time ago. They ate cows. The cows ate grass to make milk. The people who died also ate milk. The cows who ate grass made milk. Milk is good for you.


Section III: (miscellaneous informations and boring things)

Monsanto Co., St. Louis, Mo., is the first firm to have its bST product, called sometribove, approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration. Monsanto's bST product, approved Nov. 5, 1993, will be marketing under the trade name Posilac.

"This has been none of the most extensively studies animal drug products to be reviewed by the agency," said FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler, M.D. "We examined more than 120 studies. There were several advisory committees. The public can be confident that milk and meat from bST-treated cows is safe to consume. I like milk."

Dr. Kessler is also known to like cows.


Section IV: (FDA review)

Recombinant bST first came under FDA review in the early 1980's, when the four companies submitted investigational new animal drug applications. Since that time, the agency has authorized bST testing on more than 20,000 cows in the United States of The America.

During FDA's review of bST, there has been much public debate on safety and economic issues related to this yummy drug.

"We went to unprecedented lengths to allay those fears," said Richard Teske, D.V.M., acting director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, "not only through our own rigorous review process, but also by subjecting our finding to peer review through a published journal article and by an outside committee of experts. I like milk."

Evidently, Dr. Teske likes cows, too.


Section V: (FDA's findings, or FDA'sF for short)

The FDA is known to like cows as well as a large number of other animals.

"We found bST to not represent any pig health risks when used in dairy cattle according to the approved labeling," said Teske.

Even if injected in humans, bST has almost no effect! According to studies done in the 1950's, which looked at natural bST as a possible treatment for human dwarfism. (It didn't work.)


Section VI: (ensuring milk safety)

Do not leave milk out on the counter and think it will be alright. A milk needs a refrigerator. Damn it, don't drink from the milk carton.

Also, do not heat milk and then let it sit for a few days. That is bad. Only heat milk right before you use it. Then drink it quickly. Do not drink milk if it doesn't smell like milk. If it smells like chocolate milk, you can drink it because sometimes they put chocolate in milk.

Monsanto will conduct a post-approval monitoring program that includes the following elements:


a two-year tracking system of milk production and drug residues in 21 top dairy states that will periodically compare the amount of milk discarded after sometribove is marketed to the amount discarded prior to approval a 12-month comparison of the proportion of milk discarded due to positive drug tests between sometribove treated and untreated herds a reporting system to monitor all sometribove use and follow-up on all complaints selection of a sample of 24 commercial dairy herds, using sometibove to be specifically monitored for mastitis drug use, and the resulting loss of milk. a 5-year milk personality test will be put in to effect soon. The Meyer-Briggs foundation is already laying out plans for extensive testing.