Effects of dietary iodine supplement on sheep milk and cheese

Abstract

The work reported in this paper addresses the iodine nutritional deficiency that still affects a large number of people. For this purpose, we analyzed the possibility to use, as iodine vehicle, a hard typical ewe cheese, called Canestrato d'Abruzzo, derived from milk of ewes fed with an iodine-fortified diet. Both in the milk and the cheese of these animals, the iodine level was higher than that measured in sheep with a normal diet. An increase in the lactoferrin and iron content was evident in the whey derived from milk of the iodine group. Furthermore, in derived cheese, the caseins seemed more efficiently transformed in small peptides making the product more digestible and, for this reason, particularly suitable for feeding the elderly. In conclusion, the dairy products obtained from ewes fed with iodine diet contain more bioactive compounds so that they represent a useful food to prevent iodine and iron deficiency in lamb and humans.

Antibacterial properties of lactoferrin: A bibliometric analysis from 2000 to early 2022

“…LF is endowed with extensive biological properties, including antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, immunomodulatory, and enzymatic activities (García-Montoya et al, 2012 ; da et al, 2021 ). LF derived from natural bovine milk has been widely applied in fortifying food products (Kim et al, 2010 ; Carnicelli et al, 2021 ). The first discovered and the most well-known characteristic was its antibacterial property (Arnold et al, 1977 ).…”