The safety of New Zealand bovine colostrum: Nutritional and physiological evaluation in rats

The potential detrimental effects of two different oral doses of bovine colostrum were assessed in young rats according to OECD guidelines. Colostrum was supplemented at 3% and 10% into a normal rat chow. A control group received the rat chow with no supplementation. After 90 days there was no difference between colostrum-fed animals and the control group in body weight, food consumption, clinical signs, haematology and most parameters of blood chemistry including carbohydrate metabolism, liver function and kidney function. The only effects of statistical significance were a decrease in serum cholesterol concentration in the rats receiving 10% colostrum (p < 0.025), and a 33% increase in serum triglyceride concentration in the rats receiving 3% colostrum (p < 0.005) although this was not apparent in the 10% colostrum group. Further, histological examination of most organs and tissues confirmed that there were no apparent differences between the animals receiving colostrum compared to controls. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the young growing rats had no observed toxicological and histopathological abnormalities caused by colostrum at the levels of supplementation used.