BST gets a new review

There likely hasn't been a more hotly discussed topic in the dairy industry during the past two decades than rBST. Since its approval in 1993 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), rBST has been supplemented in over 30 million cows in this country. There never has been any doubt that it works. Supplementing cows with the product commercially known as Posilac leads to a 15 percent boost in milk production or approximately 10 more pounds of milk per day.

Production advantages aside, there have been a variety of other concerns aired about the product. These concerns have led to a variety of processors and marketers in the food supply chain requesting farmers to sign pledges to not supplement their cows with BST. In many cases these requests are simply a way for marketers to differentiate their product in the marketplace because, to date, there is no test that can detect rBST in milk.

All this said, Elanco took a fresh look at rBST. In doing so, they asked Richard Raymond, M.D., the former Under Secretary for Food Safety at the USDA, to head up a team of eight scientists that looked at both animal and human safety. The scientists represented well-respected institutions such as the Harvard Medical School and the Duke University Medical School just to name a few.

As part of their work, they produced a report titled, "Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rBST): A Safety Assessment". It details 36 questions regarding the product and in the end, draws the conclusion that rBST is a safe product. They point out that, "To date, there have been over 90,000 scientific publications relating to somatotropin." They go on to say that, "Specific to human safety, regulatory authorities, together with their scientific assessment bodies, in 56 countries, including Australia, Canada, European Union members states, South Korea, and the United States, have determined that milk and meat products from cows supplemented with rBST are safe for human consumption by people of all ages."

To read the entire report for yourself, download the attached PDF file.
Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin rbST Safety Assessment 2009 pdf.