Team:Cornell NY/Policies
Policies
What It Costs
Mastitis costs the dairy industry billions of dollars every year in both treatment of infected dairy cattle and in loss of sellable milk. Through our extensive human centered design outreach, a farmer told us that even the smallest improvement in current management of the disease would be worth an investment from the farmer’s perspective because of just how costly the occurrence of mastitis is.
A typical case of mastitis costs approximately $300. A standard medicine for mastitis such as Spectramast [x], costs between $6-$8 per treatment. Treatment must be given daily for a course of about a week, so the cost of the medicine itself is between $42-$56. Additionally, while a cow is being treated for a mastitis, as well as a few days post-treatment, the milk produced by that cow cannot be sold. The current price of milk is approximately $16.50/cwt [3]. Since a healthy cow produces around 100 lb of milk a day, over a course of 9 days without saleable milk there would be approximately $150 in losses. Also, once a cow recovers, they usually have permanent defects due to scarring which leads to a 10% less milk production for the rest of their lactation lifespan.
Bacteriocins also are better than the presently available medicines for mastitis.Currently, the most common treatment for mastitis is the use of intramammary antibiotic tubes. Unfortunately, these treatments often lack specificity and are given without knowledge of the type of bacteria actually causing the infection [1][2]. The specificity that our bacteriocin treatment offers leads to a smaller risk of eventual development of resistance, as well as more importantly the ability to specifically target the type of bacteria causing the disease without altering other bacterial ecology. Since the price range of the bacteriocins is likely to be in the range of other current antibiotics, it is clear that there would be a reason to purchase bacteriocins.
Current milking shells on the market cost $40-$50, but are simply solid steel parts. Since we are adding technology to our shell, it is natural that they would cost more. Each of the 8 LED lights will cost $0.67 [5], for a total of $5.36. A temperature sensor add-on would cost $15 [6].
Does It Harm Me?
Whenever we perform any scientific protocol, we always have to think about the risks and impacts of the project, a task that is, indeed, not that simple. One aspect of risks that we have to assess is the effects of the recombinant organisms and peptides that are used in the project on humans [5]. Ideally, the E. coli cells that we used to take up the various genes to produce our bacteriocins would not have any impact on the hosts because they are kept within the laboratory setting. However, if the cells managed to leave the laboratory setting, then the biggest concern would be if another organism were to take up the DNA lost from these E. coli cells.
In addition, using bacteriocins is our approach to mastitis treatment in place of the traditional application of antibiotics. Milk that has antibiotic residues must be discarded, but it is safe to consume milk that has bacteriocins. One of the greatest applications of bacteriocins in today’s industry is food preservation in meat and fish products, fruits and vegetables, and beverages. Furthermore, bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) and are effective against major Gram-positive pathogens in food-borne sicknesses. One of the major concerns, however, is the maximum level of bacteriocins allowed in the milk. Nisin, a bacteriocin that we use in this project, is used worldwide in preservation of dairy products, sausages, and canned and packaged meat, but there is still no consensus on the maximum concentration at which it is still considered safe. More studies need to be conducted to further look into the maximum levels of nisin, among other bacteriocins, that are considered to be safe [5].
[5] Sobrino-Lopez, A., O. Martin-Belloso. 2007. Use of nisin and other bacteriocins for preservation of dairy products. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0958694607002361
