If milk goes bad after sitting out of the fridge for 2 hours, how does it stay “good” inside cow’s bodies where it’s 38°C?
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Unless the cow has an infection, like mastitis, her internal organs should be aseptic. We have to be careful not to use the term “sterile” because anything living cannot be sterile, by definition (excluding the reproductive meaning). Plus, the cow has an active immune system which will suppress and destroy any bacteria that shouldn’t be there.
It’s a slightly different topic, but the mother shares aspects of her immune system through her milk to the baby. This is also true for all mammals, humans included.
An interesting case study is that of the Polio virus. This was a typical gut virus, which a mother would pass immunity to her children. She has immunity from her mother, who got it from her mother before, etc….. It wasn’t until societies became more sanitary and hygienic that mothers weren’t exposed to Polio virus as a child, so did not pass immunity on to her children.
Having naive children exposed to Polio virus anew had potentially disastrous results — attacking the nervous system and crippling thousands. It is passed fecal-orally: often at contaminated swimming holes/pools.
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