Comparison of the milk composition of free-ranging indigenous African cattle breeds

Abstract

The milk composition of free-ranging indigenous African cattle breeds was analysed. These breeds were chosen because they have not been bred specifically for milk production and might be considered the closest to a "natural" or "wild type" of the Bos species. It was found that the nutrient composition of the milk of these cattle, in particular the dry matter, is as low as that of European beef breeds. The content of whey proteins and NPN is also lower than that of dairy breeds. Statistically significant differences in milk fatty acid composition between the Sanga-type cattle and the Afrikaner and its derivatives were observed for the content of lactose, whey protein and non-protein nitrogen, as well as fatty acid composition regarding medium long chain and long chain fatty acids. A genetic relationship is evident and suggests the preference of certain fatty acid synthesis pathways. ________________________________________________________________________________

Milk of Polish Red and White cows as a source of nutritionally valuable fatty acids

“…Similar observation was reported for mountainous farms in the Czech Republic (Frelich et al 2009) but a reverse trend was observed when milk from the Black-White breed of cattle was analysed . Regardless of season, the content of butyric acid in this study was higher compared with African breeds studied by Myburgh et al (2012). The average content of anticancerogenic C4:0 in our study (4.20 g·100 g -1 FA) was also by about 25 % higher than in milk from the mountainous region in Switzerland (3.38 g·100 g -1 FA) (Collomb et al 2008).…”

“…That level was nearly twice higher compared with the data of Grega et al (2005) reported for the Red-White breed of cows fed similarly as ours experimental PRW herd. Also, fat from milk of indigenous breeds of African and Malaysian dairy cattle contained lower levels of PUFAs -2.61 g·100 g -1 and 2.12 g·100 g -1 , respectively (Myburgh et al 2012, Yassir et al 2010. Higher content of that FA group in milk from Czech Pied breed (6.67 g·100 g -1 ) was probably due to feeding cows maize and alfalfa silages with addition of barley, wheat and soy (Pešek et al 2005).…”

“…This was confirmed by our results, as highest content of branched-chain FA was observed in late autumn (2.85 g·100 g -1 FA) probably because of intake of fibre-rich hay, and in summer (3.10 g·100 g -1 FA) when cows consumed matured grass also rich in fibre, the amounts of branched-chain FA being higher than those reported by Collomb et al (2008) in milk samples derived from mountainous farms in Switzerland. It is worth noting that the presence of OBCFA in milk of PRW cows is unique among indigenous breeds of cattle studied in Africa (Myburgh et al 2012), Iran (Bassiri et al 2012), Malaysia (Yassir et al 2010) and Czech Republic (Pešek et al 2005).…”

Comparative fatty-acid profile and atherogenicity index of milk from free grazing Nguni, Boer and non-descript goats in South Africa

“…To date, no previous data on the fatty acid composition of milk fat of Nguni, Boer and non-descript goat breeds is available in the literature. Conversely, several studies have reported the effect of breeds on milk fatty acid profile in other livestock such as ewes (Talpur et al 2009) and cows (Myburgh et al 2012). However, most studies have focused on evaluating the effect of diet on fatty acid profile of milk fat in livestock (Bouattour et al 2008;Tyagi et al 2010).…”

Comparison of analytical and predictive methods for water, protein, fat, sugar, and gross energy in marine mammal milk

“…Analytic inaccuracy is of particular concern for milks that are very different in composition from the milks of dairy animals, especially marine mammals. The Comparison of analytical and predictive methods for water, protein, fat, sugar, and gross energy in marine mammal milk O. T. Oftedal ,* 1 R. Eisert ,* † and G. K. Barrell ‡ milks of marine mammals are not only much higher in fat (typically 15-40% in cetaceans and 25-60% in pinnipeds) than cow milk (2-5%, depending on breed; e.g., Myburgh et al 2012), but contain much greater diversity and abundance of long-chain PUFA and, in some taxa, more complex oligosaccharides than do the milks of dairy animals (Iverson and Oftedal, 1995;Urashima et al, 2011;Oftedal, 2011). In some taxa, NPN may represent a large portion of total N, FFA may be present if samples are handled inappropriately, and instability of thawed milks may lead to substantial sample-to-sample heterogeneity Ochoa-Acuna et al, 1999).…”