Lactation and Sweat Bacteriology

    This unit consists of two parts. The first a study of the populations of bacteria in milk and sweat over a 10-day period of time, and the second is to see if we can alter the bacterial array by our diet.

Bacterial Arrays over time

    The day after Veronica gives birth she will provide the class with small, daily samples of her milk - from clostrum to regular Grade A - as the days progress. The implications of this are for both the infant and for the mother's own health. (She'll have a test-tube rack for her samples and refrigerate them until time to take them to the lab.)

    It should be obvious to you that milk must contain a lot of bacteria because it spoils - goes sour - so quickly. Indeed, milk from the cow has about 100,000 bacteria per milliliter. But does the population arise at once? Does one species at a time get added into the mix over the days? We don't know.

Alteration of Bacterial Content

    A few weeks after the birth, Veronica should have stabilized, and we will know what sorts of bacteria she is producing. Similarly, we shall have learned what sorts of bacteria the males in the class are producing in their sweat. Of course, y'all know that mammary glands are derivatives of sweat glands, right? That's the connection here.

    Veronica and the men will then consume some cheeses that contain bacteria not previously found being secreted in their milk or sweat. The bacterial arrays are rather species specific such that while Swiss cows will have lots of propionibacteria in their milk, humans do not. (We shall by then also know whether male sweat contains that type of bacteria or not.) Then our "subjects" will each a cubic inch of Swiss cheese. About every 30 minutes, milk or sweat samples will be taken to see how long it takes for the propionibacteria to begin being secreted. In cows, this takes about 90 minutes, so not too many samples need to be collected, and you men don't have to run on the treadmills all day long!

Implications

    All this will come together as a baseline study for publication - and coauthorship on this might be your ticket in the near future to bigger and better positions. Once you have shown that bacteria proceed from the mouth or gut into the fetus, or into the milk or sweat, then all the questions spill out about the nature of the transport mechanisms, which are at the time of this writing totally obscure.