Table 4.

Recent human studies on the efficacy of bovine milk or colostral Ig preparations

Microorganism used in immunization	Target disease	Treatment regimen	Efficacy	References
Virulence factors of Str. mutans	Dental caries	Mouth rinse twice daily for 14 days	Inhibited recolonization of Str. mutans after antibiotic treatment	Shimazaki et al. (2001)
Str. mutans and Str. sobrinus	Dental caries	Mouth rinse three times daily for 3 days	Higher resting pH and smaller proportion of Str. mutans in dental plaque	Loimaranta et al. (1999)
Helicobacter pylori urease	Gastritis	150 ml of yogurt with 1% avian IgY and probiotic bacteria 3 times per day for 4 weeks	Decreased values in urea breath test	Horie et al. (2004)
Five strains or one strain of E. coli	Diarrhoea	Once per day orally 0.5 g of IgG per kg of body weight, follow-up period for 6 months	Lower incidence of diarrhoea and shorter duration of diarrhoea episodes	Tawfeek et al. (2003)
Shigella dysenteriae antigen I	Shigellosis	100 mL orally three times per day for 3 days in combination with antibiotics	No significant difference in any clinical parameter	Ashraf et al. (2001)
Clostridium difficile toxin and C. difficile whole cells	C. difficile diarrhoea	Orally for 2 weeks as supportive treatment after antibiotic treatment	C. difficile toxins eradicated from 15 of 16 patients and no relapses in any patient during 11 month follow-up period	Van Dissel et al. (2005)
No immunization	Mild hyper-cholesterolemia	Orally 5 g of blood-derived IgG daily for 3 or 6 weeks	Both total cholesterol and LDL levels decreased from baselines	Earnest et al. (2005)
No immunization	Upper respiratory tract infections	60 g of colostral protein daily for 8 weeks	Reduced significantly incidence of self-estimated symptoms of respiratory infections but no difference in duration	Brinkworth and Buckley (2003)
No immunization	Endotoxemia due to abdominal surgery	Colostral preparation Lactobin® 52 g daily in 4 doses orally for 3 days before surgery	Lower levels of endotoxin and endotoxin neutralizing capacity in blood suggesting reduced endotoxemia due to surgery	Bölke, Jehle et al. (2002)
No immunization	Endotoxemia due to coronary surgery	Colostral preparation Lactobin® 42 g daily doses orally for 2 days before surgery	Lower levels of CRP but no effect on perioperative endotoxemia	Bölke, Orth et al. (2002)