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Background: Breast-feeding is protective against respiratory infections in early life. Given the co-evolutionary adaptations of humans and cattle, bovine milk might exert similar anti-infective effects in human infants. Objective: To study effects of consumption of raw and processed cow's milk on common infections in infants. Methods: The PASTURE birth cohort followed 983 infants from rural areas in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, and Switzerland, for the first year of life, covering 37,306 person-weeks. Consumption of different types of cow's milk and occurrence of rhinitis, respiratory tract infections, otitis, and fever were assessed by weekly health diaries. C-reactive protein levels were assessed using blood samples taken at 12 months. Results: When contrasted with ultra-heat treated milk, raw milk consumption was inversely associated with occurrence of rhinitis (adjusted odds ratio from longitudinal models [95% CI]: 0.71 [0.54-0.94]), respiratory tract infections (0.77 [0.59-0.99]), otitis (0.14 [0.05-0.42]), and fever (0.69 [0.47-1.01]). Boiled farm milk showed similar but weaker associations. Industrially processed pasteurized milk was inversely associated with fever. Raw farm milk consumption was inversely associated with C-reactive protein levels at 12 months (geometric means ratio [95% CI]: 0.66 [0.45-0.98]). Conclusions: Early life consumption of raw cow's milk reduced the risk of manifest respiratory infections and fever by about 30%. If the health hazards of raw milk could be overcome, the public health impact of minimally processed but pathogen-free milk might be enormous, given the high prevalence of respiratory infections in the first year of life and the associated direct and indirect costs.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a disease in which both genetic and environmental factors play important roles. The farming environment has consistently been associated with protection from childhood asthma and atopy, and interactions have been reported with polymorphisms in innate immunity genes. OBJECTIVE: To detect gene-environment interactions for asthma and atopy in the farming environment. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide interaction analysis for asthma and atopy by using 500,000 genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and farm-related exposures in 1708 children from 4 rural regions of Central Europe. We also tested selectively for interactions between farm exposures and 7 SNPs that emerged as genome-wide significant in a large meta-analysis of childhood asthma and 5 SNPs that had been reported previously as interacting with farm exposures for asthma or atopy. RESULTS: Neither the asthma-associated SNPs nor the SNPs previously published for interactions with asthma showed significant interactions. The genome-wide interaction study did not reveal any significant interactions with SNPs within genes in the range of interacting allele frequencies from 30% to 70%, for which our study was well powered. Among rarer SNPs, we identified 15 genes with strong interactions for asthma or atopy in relation to farming, contact with cows and straw, or consumption of raw farm milk. CONCLUSION: Common genetic polymorphisms are unlikely to moderate the protective influence of the farming environment on childhood asthma and atopy, but rarer variants, particularly of the glutamate receptor, metabotropic 1 gene, may do so. Given the limited statistical power of our study, these findings should be interpreted with caution before being replicated in independent farm populations.

BACKGROUND: Traditional farming represents a unique model situation to investigate the relationship of early-life farm-related exposure and allergy protection. OBJECTIVES: To investigate associations between maternal farm exposures and cytokine production in cord blood (CB) mononuclear cells in a prospective multinational birth cohort of 299 farm and 326 nonfarm children and their families. METHODS: Supernatants from phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate/ionomycin-stimulated CB mononuclear cells were assessed for the production of IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, IL-5, IL-10, and IL-12. RESULTS: Significantly higher levels of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in farm compared with nonfarm children were found, whereas IL-5, IL-10, and IL-12 levels did not differ between study groups. Maternal contact with different farm animal species and barns and consumption of farm-produced butter during pregnancy enhanced the production of proinflammatory CB cytokines, whereas maternal consumption of farm-produced yogurt resulted in significant lower levels of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in umbilical blood. CONCLUSION: Maternal exposure to farming activities and farm dairy products during pregnancy modulated cytokine production patterns of offspring at birth.