10/09/07 Otter is China bound; mastitis update

Governor Butch Otter plans to leave the state on October 27th for the beginning of an eleven day trade mission to China. Like a trip he took to Cuba earlier this year, Otter is trying to expand Idaho's export base in China. Last year more than 593 million dollars worth of Idaho goods and products went to China, mostly in the form of computer and electronic components. Idaho Department of Agriculture director Celia Gould and ag marketing specialist Laura Johnson are part of the Idaho delegation that will visit Beijing and Shanghai before returning home on November 6th. Mastitis costs dairy farmers billions of dollars annually from incapacitated cows and milk that can't be sold. Now help may be on the way. Agricultural Research Service scientists are testing a plant produced therapeutic protein that thwarts bacteria that causes an inflammatory udder disease in dairy cows. The lab produced plant virus is a delivery vehicle for a specific gene that expresses large quantities of a protein called CD14 which is naturally present in cows' milk and blood plasma. CD14 binds to and neutralizes a toxin which is present in the E-coli bacterium that causes mastitis. Scientists say 50 plants could produce enough purified protein to treat a herd of 500 cows. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott