A2 - a1?

[Reed77]

I hear A2/A2 and A1/A1 around here sometimes, and I'm wanting to know what it means?

[genebo]

It refers to the type of beta casein a cow produces in her milk. All milk contains beta casein. We need it. Some cows have been discovered to produce a type called A1 beta casein, that has been implicated in diabetes, heart disease and autism.

No other mammal produces A1 beta casein in it's milk, and not all cows do. Many still produce the type A2 beta casein that has not been supected of causing any harm.

People want to drink the kind of milk that doesn't have A1 beta casein in it. So they want milk cows that don't produce it.

You can't tell if a cow produces A1, A2 or a mix of the two except by a DNA test of the cow (or bull). You can have that test done at the Veterinary Genetics Lab at UC Davis for $25.


The results will tell you whether your cow is A2/A2 (gives milk that is free of A1), A1/A1 (gives milk with all A1 in it), or A2/A1 (gives milk with some A1 in it).

The test results from a bull are used to select a bull to use for breeding in order to get dairy heifers. He can pass on his A2 gene to the calf.

New Zealand has almost eliminated A1 from it's commercial dairies and Australia is working on it. So far, there's only one A2 dairy operating in the US. It hasn't hit big here yet.

[Reed77]

So the milk I'm drinking from the store is likely A1? are they going to make dairy farmers change to A2?

[brentcu]

I was in Australia on vaca a year or so ago and there certainly wasn't much a2 milk there. But it does exist - I did find some cartons in a large supermarket. It was expensive compared to all the other milk.

[springvalley]

Why would they make the dairy farmer change to A2 cows, they don`t care about what is in your milk. > Marc

[genebo]

In New Zealand they found that 70% of the dairy cows were A1 producers. In collecting and processing, it all gets mixed, so all the milk in the stores contained A1.

In order to sell pure A2 milk, they had to set up a separate collection and processing network, to keep it pure.

There's only one such network in the US. All the A2 products are sold through Hy-Vee stores in the midwest. In some major cities, you can buy imported A2 milk, but it is pricy.

The best way to get A2 milk for your family is to find an A2 producing cow to milk. In some states you can buy milk from a farmer. In Virginia you can buy a share of a cow that a farmer milks, and take your share of the milk.

Check craigslist for ads for milk shares in your area, but they're usually snapped up as soon as they appear.

[Reed77]

Originally Posted by springvalley

Why would they make the dairy farmer change to A2 cows, they don`t care about what is in your milk. > Marc

I'm not concerned about drinking A1, I'm just wondering because the gov. likes to dictate how things work

[Reed77]

So is there A1 & A2 type for any other livestock or is it just cows?

[genebo]

All mammals give milk and about 38% of the milk is casein. Beta casein is part of it. There are a number of different types of beta casein, but the vast majority of all beta casein in mammals is A2. As far as I know, only cattle have the mutation that produces A1 beta casein. It's found mostly in European cattle, Bos Taurus. It seems to have skipped most of the Asian cattle, Bos Indicus.

Goats, sheep, camels, zebras, cats and humans are some of those that produce A2. Some people claim it's why they can drink goat's milk, but not cow's milk. There hasn't been any research to pinpoint this and there are a lot of other things that could be responsible.

If you can't afford to have your cow tested, you could try milking your cat instead. Save a bundle.

[farmgirl6]

oh boy, there is a visual!

[Callieslamb]

Originally Posted by Reed77

I'm not concerned about drinking A1, I'm just wondering because the gov. likes to dictate how things work

I don't think the govt will press the change - quite the opposite, in fact. It will be the organic/healthy eaters that will press for the change. US dairies are denying A2 is of any importance. Some believe that NZ purposely made the research info/test NOT be available for other dairies so they could corner the market ahead of others.

Read "Devil in the Milk".

[JulieLou42]

From what I've read about A1/A2 milk is that it's primarily found in Guernsey and Jersey milk, but my research was several years ago. There are sites about it on the Net.

[genebo]

Pure A2 is the type of milk you want to drink. It's milk containing A1 that has received all the bad publicity. Both types are found in every breed that has been tested in the US so far.

Guernsey is the breed that has tested to have the highest percentage of pure A2/A2 producers in the US and Holstein has tested the lowest.

Yet ironically, the only dairy that produces pure A2 milk in the US does so with Holstein cows. They tested a huge number of Holsteins in order to identify the ones they now use to make their milk.

In the US, Jerseys are on the low side of pure A2 producers. Finding a Jersey breeding bull that carries A2/A2 is a challenge.

[cowkeeper]

Originally Posted by genebo

In the US, Jerseys are on the low side of pure A2 producers. Finding a Jersey breeding bull that carries A2/A2 is a challenge.

I have done net searches that turned up a lot of homozygous A2 Jersey AI bulls. I also found a surprising number of homo A2 Holstein AI bulls and made a list for a local Holstein breeder. He had already used a number of them in his herd before he ever heard of A2.ck

[genebo]

Hang on to the list of those bulls. Maybe you could share it. My friend spent a good bit of time to find an A2/A2 Jersey, and when he found one, he bought quite a bit of semen.

Of course, he was particular about the bull he used. He had other requirements besides A2/A2. He didn't want to buy semen form a bull that had some defects, even if it did have A2/A2.

The same goes for any breed. When you use semen from a bull, you're getting the whole package, good, bad and indifferent. Be choosy.

What is really ironic about my friend is that he had an A2/A2 Jersey bull that he'd raised on his farm. I'd had it tested for him in New Zealand, before we got A2 testing here. He used his Jersey bull for one round of breeding, but then it got so mean that he wouldn't go into the pasture with it any more, so he ate it.

[datars]

Thanks for the info on this Thread. Very helpful

I'll be back

[happydog]

I remember at least two threads on the keeping a family cow forum that discuss certain bulls that are A2A2.

I've found you can call the various semen companies and just ask them for a list of their A2A2 bulls. A lot of them haven't been tested but enough have that you should be able to compile a good list of potential bulls.

My tested my first cows and sold off the ones who weren't A2A2. Then I bought another batch and tested them.

I buy my cows from a nearby dairy. They only keep 50 cows, so every year they have a new batch of heifers freshen and they sell off some of their older cows, generally the lower producers. I only want lower producers because they have far fewer problems with milk fever etc. So this has worked great for me and the dairy owners are happy to have some of their cows go on to be family milkers.

Anyhow, when I went to the dairy to choose which girls I wanted, I got a list of the cows they had available for sale and I asked who their sires were. Then I called Select Sires and Genex to find out if those sires had ever been tested. I eliminated any cows whose sires were known to be A1A1 or A1A2.

I now have 4 Jerseys, and all are A2A2. And I will breed them only to A2A2 bulls.

I've found dairies to be remarkably uninformed about A2A2. And since holsteins make up a large portion of animals in commercial dairies, and they're generally NOT A2A2, you can understand why the industry isn't jumping to spread the word about A2A2 milk.

[brentcu]

I have been looking on the net as this thread has developed. (I have tried a2 milk in Australia a couple of years ago.) There seemed to have been a fair bit of noise about this around 2007 and 2008 culminating in New Zealand and Europe's food safety bodies releasing reports that say there's no good evidence.

Maybe the commercial dairies read those reports and said ok, we'll wait until something more concrete comes up. Or maybe they didn’t. Either way you expect them to change without customer demand or regulation?

The a2 milk site seems to be very quiet on a1 milk except to say it is different. They do point out that a2 milk "may assist with your digestive wellbeing." Maybe the a2 site used to talk about diabetes, autism and heart disease, but I couldn't find them there now. Maybe guessing they got into trouble with the regulators and had to tone down the message.

I'm not seeing the data that says a1 is bad. It would be kinda hard to invest extra cash in an a2 herd based on what I read, but if you have customers demanding it then it would make sense. I don’t know if anyone is yet doing a good human trial on a1/a2 milk, but that would make interesting reading.

I did crack up in laughter at the a2 corporation researcher pointing out that Toulouse has better health than Ireland and implying it was the Irish drinking lots of a1 milk. I live near Toulouse and the diet here is so incredibly different it is impossible to pinpoint any one thing as the cause. Is it: foie gras, duck fat, continental beef, wine, armagnac, Toulousain sausage, croissants, Roquefort cheese? Or maybe the sunshine?