BASF Co-Sponsoring Symposium on New CLA Research

Top researchers in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) will present their latest findings in both humans and animals in an August 21 symposium during the American Chemical Society’s national conference in Philadelphia. The CLA symposium, titled “CLA: A Naturally Occurring, Anti-Obesity, Anti-Inflammatory Fatty Acid,” is being co-sponsored by BASF Nutrition & Health (Florham Park, NJ). BASF supplies its Tonalin brand of CLA for human food, beverages, and supplements, and its Lutrell and Lutalin CLA brands for livestock.

CLA is a fatty acid derived from natural safflower oil and is promoted for health benefits in humans, such as maintaining optimal body composition. It has also shown effects for restoring CLA levels in cows to levels that would be present if they were pasture-fed.

BASF says the symposium is being held in honor of Michael W. Pariza, PhD, an emeritus professor of food science and emeritus director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Pariza is widely recognized as the founder of the modern field of CLA research.

“It is most gratifying to see the emerging clinical research on the positive effects of CLA in humans-for example, reducing body fat while maintaining lean muscle, enhancing the immune system, and other potential benefits,” Pariza said. “Important applications of CLA in animal agriculture include improving the vitality of dairy cows, and potentially reducing the need for antibiotics in poultry. This is an exciting time for CLA research.”

The CLA symposium presentations will include:

• “Synthesis of CLA isomers and their effect on milk fat production” by Dale Bauman, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
• “CLA and its effect on dairy cow fertility with emphasis on low level inflammatory processes” by Giuseppe Bertoni , Paolo Grossi, Erminio Trevisi, Istituto di Zootecnica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy.
• “Isomers of conjugated linoleic acid as important nutrients in the dairy cow” by Kevin Shingfield , MTT Agrifood Research, Jokioinen, Hame, Finland.
• “CLA's role in biochemical processes” by Yeonhwa Park ,  Yooheon Park, Jun Ho Kim, Jonggun Kim, Heeseok Lee, Department  of Food Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
• “Dietary CLA reduces clinical signs of acute and chronic inflammatory disease” by Mark Cook, Animal Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
• “CLA in obesity” by Leah Whigham , USDAARS Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, ND.
• “CLA in cardiovascular disease” by Robert Nicolosi , Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut-Storrs,Storrs, CT.
• “Perspectives on CLA” by Mike Pariza, Department of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.

The symposium is also sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the ACS’s Agricultural and Food Chemistry and Agrochemicals Divisions, and ACS Kansas City Section.