This award provides partial support for a sabbatical research visit to Switzerland by Professor Craig R. Baumrucker of Pennsylvania State University. He will work with Professor Juergen Blum of the Institute of Animal Breeding of the University of Bern and Professors E. R. Froesch and J. Zapf of the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Zurich. They have mutual interest and complementary expertise in studies of the effects of bovine colostrum growth factor (IGF-I) in the neonatal calf. Dr. Blum has extensive experience in surgical and physiological work with ruminants; Dr. Baumrucker is more accomplished in the cellular-molecular aspects of the ruminant mammary gland. The specific objectives of their current research are to determine if dietary IGF-I in bovine colostrum affects intestinal growth in vivo and to quantify the survival of bioactive dietary IGF-I in the intestine of the calf. They will also investigate the occurrence of type I and II IGF receptors in intestinal membranes. The recent discoveries of numerous growth factors has opened a new and exciting era for the understanding of animal tissue development and growth, with implications for agricultural productivity as well as human biology. By testing the hypothesis that colostrum containing IGF-I has beneficial growth effects upon the bovine neonatal intestine, this study will contribute substantially to understanding of what happens to both colostrum and milk in the gut. Isolation of cell stimulatory factors and understanding of IGF-I are prerequisites for development of recombinant growth factors. Since human and bovine colostrum are identical, the results of this study may benefit the human species.
