Days in milk alters the milk fatty acid profile of grazing donkeys: A preliminary study

Abstract

Donkeys are essential for rural economies around the world, and the interest in equine milk has increased considerably due to its beneficial properties for humans. The chemical composition is more similar to human milk than cow's milk (Salimei et al., 2004). Equine milk is an alternative to cow's milk for people with cow's milk protein allergy (Salimei & Fantuz, 2012). In addition, donkey milk has antioxidant capacity (Li et al., 2018), antimicrobial, hypoglycaemic and antiparasitic properties (Martini et al., 2018); similar properties have been reported in mare milk as well (Barreto et al. 2019(Barreto et al. , 2020Salimei & Fantuz, 2012). Cow's milk has low levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), but donkey milk contains lower concentrations of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and higher concentrations of essential fatty acids (linoleic and α-linolenic acids) (Martemucci & D'Alessandro, 2012). Donkey milk is rich in unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) with a

Milk Properties and Morphological Characteristics of the Donkey Mammary Gland for Development of an Adopted Milking Machine—A Review

“…However, donkey and horse milks are produced and consumed in almost all European countries, as well as in Africa and Latin America [10,15,33,38,88,89]. It is noteworthy that horse mare's milk, like DM, is rich in whey proteins [20,40,85,88], polyunsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid C18:2 and linolenic acid C18:3 [20,40,[90][91][92] and vitamin C [93,94]. Since horse and donkey milks contain a low level of casein and a high level of whey proteins, they are easier to digest for humans [95].…”