Characterize the specific virulence factors of mastitis pathogens. Develop methods to improve the mammary gland cellular and immune defenses against mastitis pathogens.
Mastitis continues to cause heavy economic losses to the U.S. dairy industry.
The drug residues in milk from infected cows are of great health concerns to the consumers. New control strategies are needed to prevent and treat infected dairy cattle. The functional activity of the bMAb is being tested in vivo. Cloned the gene for CD14, a potent neutralizer of Escherichia coli endotoxin that causes removal of 300,000 cows from US dairy herds. Inserted the gene into E. coli and baculovirus for production of CD14, and have plans to insert the gene into plants for large-scale production of CD14 for clinical trials.