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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2002;287:2937.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 117 words of the full text and any section headings.

A daily swig of milk from cows vaccinated against the bacterium Streptococcus mutans may help prevent cavities, according to findings by researchers at Kyushu University in Japan. The work was published in the May issue of Infection and Immunity.

The investigators gave rats a once-daily drink of concentrated bovine milk containing antibodies against S mutans (a bacterium strongly implicated as a cause of dental caries). Animals that received the immune milk had significantly less dental caries than control animals that received nonimmune milk.

"In this study, immune milk clearly suppressed caries development in a rat model," say the researchers. "This immune milk might be an effective tool for controlling dental caries in humans."