Medicine in ancient Rome mother's milk (or colostrum) is actually a rather effective treatment. Colostrum has been shown to prevent the growth of "Staphylococcus" bacteria, which are a known cause of several types of infection. Colostrum is about half as effective as some antibiotics prescribed to patients today. Colostrum is also effective against the bacterium chlamydia; this is the cause of a sexually transmitted disease and also can cause severe sight impairment, if not blindness. Thus, colostrum was a rather effective treatment in the ancient world – perhaps that is why it was viewed as a divine treatment. The interpretation of dreams was another
Colostrum after calving. Livestock breeders commonly bank colostrum from their animals. Colostrum can be stored frozen but it does lose some of its inherent quality. Colostrum produced on a breeder's own premises is considered to be superior to colostrum from other sources, because it is produced by animals already exposed to (and, thus, making antibodies to) pathogens occurring on the premises. A German study reported that multiparous mares produced on average a liter (quart) of colostrum containing 70 grams of IgG. In most dairy cow herds, the calves are removed from their mothers soon after birth and fed colostrum from a