Mamels life animal

This week is the  ADSA-AMPA-ASAS-CSAS-WSASAS Joint Annual Meeting  in Phoenix, AZ. Yeah that's right, its JULY and I'm heading to a conference in Phoenix. Woo. Hoo. I guess that's kind of appropriate though since mammary glands evolved from sweating... There are tons of presentations on dairy science- from animal to consumer, but the Lactation Biology Symposium on Wednesday afternoon will be off the hook! Just sayin'- The Long-Term Impact of Epigenetics and Maternal Influence on the Neonate  Through Milk-Borne Factors & Nutrient Status Chair: Michael Van Amburgh, Cornell University Sponsor: EAAP 2:00 PM Introductions.  M. Van Amburgh, Cornell University . 2:05 PM EAAP-ASAS Speaker Exchange Presentation: Role of colostrum and colostrum components on glucose metabolism  in neonatal calves.  H. M. Hammon*, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Dummerstorf, Germany . 2:40 PM Nutrition of the dam affects mammary gland development and milk production in the off

Milk is everywhere. From the dairy aisle at the grocery store to the explosive cover of the Mother’s Day issue of Time magazine , the ubiquity of milk makes it easy to take for granted. But surprisingly, milk synthesis is evolutionarily older than mammals. Milk is even older than dinosaurs. Moreover, milk contains constituents that infants don’t digest, namely oligosaccharides, which are the preferred diet of the neonate’s intestinal bacteria ( nom nom nom! )  And milk doesn’t just feed the infant, and the infant’s microbiome; the symbiotic bacteria are IN mother’s milk. Evolutionary Origins of Lactation The fossil record, unfortunately, leaves little direct evidence of the soft-tissue structures that first secreted milk. Despite this, paleontologists can scrutinize morphological features of fossils, such as the presence or absence of milk teeth ( diphyodonty ), to infer clues about the emergence of “milk.” Genome-wide surveys of the expression and function of mammary genes across dive

In January of this year Peggy Neville, Jim McManaman, and Steve Anderson organized and hosted a small conference “designed to bring together a number of different folks in the areas of lactation, breastfeeding, milk, and neonatal nutrition to try to define the critical research questions in these fields.”  During those three unusually balmy days in Denver, Colorado we discussed not just our research programs and findings to date, but explicitly identified unresolved questions in lactation biology and established future goals for research.   The outcome of those discussions was synthesized in a paper out this week from the Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia entitled “ Lactation and NeonatalNutrition: Defining and Refining the Critical Questions ”. And best of all that paper is open access!  In this paper we discuss the current state of knowledge, reviewing a substantial amount of the lactation biology literature. From that foundational framing, we identify the next steps in

Yeah... so I had planned to write an kickass Father's Day Post about Dyak fruit bats, male lactation, and paternal care. I still plan to write that post, naturally, but this morning I woke up motivated to do something else. Instead I made this video for my Dad. I finally had the fortitude since he passed away in 2008. June's tough for me because his birthday, Father's Day, and his death day are all this month. So forgive me this self-indulgent posting and I promise to deliver the sciencie-science next time. And short story short- my Dad was pretty much the awesomest.  Jim Hinde, veteran, folksinger, Dad Happy Father's Day to all the fathers, step-fathers, and single moms doing double duty.  Oh and since he said it a MILLION times better than I, or anyone else, ever could: here is Kahlil Gibran 's poem "On Children" from The Prophet (it also explains brother Nate's and my tattoos). On Children by Kahlil Gibran Your children are not your children. Th

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…" Mother's milk allows mothers to nurse infants in environments  that would otherwise be inhospitable to young.  Too bad for reptiles. Body fat is not just for buffering us from famine, keeping us warm during winter, and causing our self-recrimination during swimsuit season. Our body fat is also an integral part of our endocrine signaling system. Hormones that are secreted from fat cells- leptin, for example - communicate with the brain triggering hunger (food!) and cravings for calorie rich foods (cheeseburger!). These hormones also contribute to the processes by which we metabolize and assimilate ingested food. The discovery of these hormones occurred relatively recently, and much remains unknown about their function.  Among the emerging literature, however, are compelling insights into maternal hormones, their transfer via expressed milk, and their consequences in the developing neonate. I can haz Reubens cheezburger

Allo-Mother’s Milk discussed cultural, historical, and evolutionary perspectives of allo-mother’s milk. Here the story continues… Right now numerous entities are developing a “milk” supply for clinical intervention. Examples of this endeavor are Prolacta and the non-profit Human Milk Bank Association of North America . One critically important application for donor milk is that it reduces the risk of necrotizing entercolitis in NICU babies. A recent meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials revealed that premature babies that consumed commercial formula were 4 times more likely to develop this dangerous infection than premature infants that consumed donor milk (Ben et al. 2012). These "milk" supply efforts rely on donated milk from women screened for heath and lifestyle. After donation, milk undergoes processing to make it safer (e.g. pasteurization). These processes, while important for protecting the recipient, can also neutralize some of the beneficial bioactive co