Cows may be source of hormone in baby milk

EXPERTS say the early onset of puberty reported in infants' could have been caused by the female hormones farmers used to feed dairy cows.

Three babies affected in central China's Hubei Province had been fed only Synitra formula since birth, according to their parents. Similar cases were found in Guangdong, Jiangxi and Shanxi provinces.

But the Qingdao-based formula maker denied that their product was linked to premature sexual development.

Wang Dingmian, an official with the Dairy Association of China, said adding estrogen to milk powder deliberately would not bring any extra profit.

But he said that if there was female hormone in the dairy product, the chemical could have entered the milk from the cows themselves. Estrogen is used to help cows breed and produce milk.

Synitra said in a statement yesterday that it is suing Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television for "fabricating reports" about the company's milk.

Phoenix Television quoted the parents of the victims as saying the company's formula was tainted with estrogen after one baby girl was found to have the estrogen levels of a grown woman. A three-month-old boy in Guangdong was also found to have an excess of the female hormone.

Synitra said they did not add estrogen to their products and called the Phoenix reports "unscientific, not genuine and deliberately misinterpreting."

Chen Junshi, a food safety researcher at China's disease control authority, said there was no evidence that the small number of cases were linked to the milk powder.



 

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