Evidence Hub

Heat treatment of colostrum at 60°C decreases colostrum immunoglobulins but increases serum immunoglobulins and serum total protein: A meta-analysis

M. I. Malik, M. Rashid, D. Raboisson

Journal of Dairy Science, 2022

15 citations

Abstract

Calves are born hypogammaglobulinemic; thus, the newborn calf's immune defense relies on the ingestion and absorption of colostrum, which provides energy, immunoglobulins, immune cells, and cytokines to the newborn calf. A heat treatment applied to colostrum for 60 min at 60°C has been found to be effective at reducing the total bacterial count while preserving the colostrum IgG levels. The objective of this work was to perform a meta-analysis on the association between the characteristics of heat-treated colostrum and the concentration of colostrum IgG, serum IgG concentration, and serum total protein (STP). A meta-analysis was carried out based on existing peer-reviewed literature. Publications comparing colostrum IgG, serum IgG, and STP for heat-treated or raw frozen colostrum were included. The different heating temperatures applied to the colostrum were divided into 2 subgroups: high temperature (HT; > 60°C) and low temperature (LT; ≤ 60°C). Twelve studies, including 21 trials, met the inclusion criteria for colostrum IgG concentration. The results indicated decreases in colostrum IgG by 20.6 g/L [95% confidence interval (CI) = 11.8-29.4] for HT and 5.38 g/L (95% CI = 2.9-7.8) for LT when colostrum was heat-treated compared with raw or frozen colostrum. Heterogeneity was high to moderate (I2 = 82% for HT and 65% for LT). The heat treatment of colostrum was also associated with a nonsignificant decrease in serum IgG by 3.40 g/L for HT (95% CI = 7.54-0.74) but a…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a meta-analysis. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free