Heat Treatment of Bovine Colostrum. I: Effects of Temperature on Viscosity and Immunoglobulin G Level

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the critical temperature, at or below which heat-treatment of bovine colostrum would produce no significant changes in viscosity, IgG concentration, or Ig activity. Results of preliminary work, using a Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA) to heat 50-mL aliquots from 6 unique batches of bovine colostrum at 59, 60, 61, 62, and 63 degrees C, suggested that colostrum could be heated to 60 degrees C for up to 120 min without changing viscosity or IgG concentration. This finding was confirmed by heating 50-mL aliquots from 30 unique batches of colostrum in an RVA for 120 min at 60 and 63 degrees C. Heating colostrum to 63 degrees C resulted in an estimated 34% decrease in IgG concentration and 33% increase in viscosity. However, there was no difference in IgG concentration between preheat-treated (73.4 +/- 26.5 mg/mL) and post-heat-treated (74.5 +/- 24.3 mg/mL) samples after heating colostrum to 60 degrees C in an RVA for 120 min. Similarly, viscosity was unaffected after heating colostrum to 60 degrees C in an RVA for 120 min. High quality colostrum (> or =73.0 mg/mL) suffered greater losses of IgG and greater viscosity changes when heated to 63 degrees C than did moderate quality colostrum (<73.0 mg/mL). However, the effects of colostrum quality were minor if high quality colostrum was only heated to 60 degrees C. The results of a bovine viral diarrhea serum neutralization assay suggested that antibody activity was unchanged after heating colostrum to either 60 or 63 degrees C. However, these results were interpreted as being inconclusive due to a high proportion of missing results because of the congealing of many samples after heat treatment. The results of this study indicate that 50-mL volumes of bovine colostrum can be heat treated at 60 degrees C for up to 120 min in an RVA without affecting IgG concentration or viscosity.

Composition and properties of bovine colostrum: a review

“…The same authors observed that the consistency of colostrum was mildly thickened following pasteurisation. McMartin et al (2006) found that heating colostrum to 63°C for 120 min resulted in an estimated 34% decrease in native IgG concentration and a 33% increase in viscosity. The same authors reported no differences in native IgG concentration and viscosity after heating colostrum to 60°C for 120 min and, in doing so, identified the critical temperature at or below which heating would produce no significant changes in native IgG concentration and viscosity.…”

“…The high protein content of colostrum leads to multiple problems in industrial processes, e.g. poor heat stability, which interferes with pasteurisation (Marnila and Korohnen 2002;McMartin et al 2006). Also, the high content of antimicrobial components in colostrum may affect the fermentation process (Marnila and Korohnen 2002).…”

Comparison of immunoglobulin (IgG, IgM) concentrations in calvesraised under organic and conventional conditions

“…Colostrum IgG concentration was lower than the reported range of 71.9 and 88.1 g/L by various researchers (Murphy et al, 2005;McMartin et al, 2006;Jozica et al, 2010;Furman-Fratczak et al, 2011;Gelsinger et al, 2014). Colostrum Ig concentration varies with the cow's health status, the amount of colostrum produced, calving season and other factors, and older cows produce colostrum with a higher Ig concentration (Quigley, 2002).…”

Alimentación y manejo del calostro en el ganado de leche

“…Los mismos autores no encontraron diferencias signifi cativas al comparar concentraciones de IgG antes y después de la pasteurización. Sin embargo, McMartin et al (2006) utilizando sistemas de pasteurización comercial (63°C por 30 min) reportaron que la concentración de IgG se redujo en un 34%. Por su parte, Elizondo et al (2007) reportan una disminución en la concentración de IgG totales del 24% utilizando 62,8°C por 30 minutos a nivel de laboratorio.…”