A Comparative Study of Liquid and Dry Milk as Anemia-Producing Diets

Abstract

The production of nutritional anemia in white rats fed exclusivally on a natural fluid milk diet is confirmed. A similar anemic condition also resulted from the feeding of liquid milk boiled for two minutes, and from the feeding of reconstituted spray process milk powder containing normal amounts of iron and copper. Reconstituted dry milk having the same copper content as the fluid milk from which it was prepared, but with an increased iron content resulting from contact of the milk with the drying cylinders, prevented the development of the characteristic milk anemia during the observation periods herein recorded. This milk also corrected to an appreciable degree the anemic condition resulting from the prolonged natural fluid milk diet. Immediate response to the change to the dry milk diet was shown by improved physical condition of the animals, increased blood count and ascending hemoglobin content. In cases where the iron content of the reconstituted milk was approximately twice the iron content of fluid milk, the blood count and hemoglobin did not reach the levels attained by the feeding of a normal stock ration. In one group where the iron content of the reconstituted milk was approximately four times that of normal milk, a normal hemoglobin level and normal blood count were maintained throughout the observation period. Increasing the iron and copper content of fluid milk as inorganic additions furnished through the medium of liquid milk ash and dry milk ash did not furnish an appreciable degree of protection against anemia, nor so great a degree of protection as did the feeding of the unsupplemented reconstituted milk. The results are not conclusive in showing that the copper content of the milk is always the vital factor concerned in the anemia of white rats receiving milk diets exclusively. The increased quantity of iron in the desiccated milk and such other changes in its chemical structure as may concurrently result from the desiccating operation, appear to impart measurable anti-anemic properties to this type of milk.