From UC Davis News & Information: U.S.-Brazilian Research Team to Tackle Deadly Intestinal Diseases with Genetically Enhanced Goats’ Milk

Scientists in Brazil and at the University of California, Davis, are teaming up to develop a herd of genetically modified dairy goats, whose milk is expected to protect against the types of diarrheal diseases that each year claim the lives of more than 2 million children around the world.

The team plans to have a milk-producing herd of these goats established in Brazil within two years and hopes to begin human trials with the genetically enhanced goats’ milk within three to five years. The milk will carry increased levels of the human enzyme lysozyme. Known to impart important immunological benefits, lysozyme is found at very high levels in human breast milk but at very low levels in goats’ milk.