Welcome to the European Colostrum Industry (ECI) website, the leader in the European bovine colostrum market. With European Colostrum Industry, you can be sure that you are working with a recognised, reliable partner that offers safe, high-quality products.
We are the partner you need.
In 1984, activities related to bovine colostrum (which were known as the ‘colostrum bank’) were launched by local authorities through the CER Group (an approved research centre in the life sciences sector). Its goal was to provide the region’s cattle farmers with high-quality colostrum. At the same time, it allowed dairy farmers, or mixed farmers, with surplus colostrum to make money from it.
Initially, the colostrum bank simply repackaged colostrum in a frozen form. It was not until the 1990s that the CER Group decided to acquire freeze-drying machinery to convert colostrum into powder, following research in this area.
ECI was founded by the French company Ouest Elevage, a subsidiary of Laïta (the EVEN cooperative group), and the CER Group (an approved research centre in the agri-food and immunology sectors) in 2011 and benefits from their pooled expertise.
The ECI project benefits from an extremely favourable societal context (in broad terms, antibiotic resistance and immunology), which helps to provide sustainable solutions for the farming sector (the preventative wing).
Duties
The ECI’s duties include:
collecting bovine colostrum from the first milking (when it is rich in antibodies) on European farms that are officially recognised as being free from tuberculosis, brucellosis and leucosis;
transforming it via reliable and tested processes, making it possible to preserve the biological activity of the colostrum in an environment subject to strict quality requirements (ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and GMP);
marketing colostrum as a raw material or a health/nutrition product, as a result of R&D that has been implemented by ECI for the animal feed and pet food markets (in particular, veterinary markets);
performing services, in particular commissioned drying services (bovine colostrum stakeholders, etc.);
Vision
ECI will continue to maintain and consolidate its position as a market leader in bovine colostrum in Europe and internationally, in different markets (feed, pet food and food). Its project benefits from an extremely favourable societal context in terms of antibiotic resistance and immunology, which helps to provide sustainable solutions for the farming sector (the preventative aspect). ECI is part of an integrated, systemic and unified approach to public, animal and environmental health, as promoted by the One Health concept.