Phenotypic characterisation of milk technological traits, protein fractions, and major mineral and fatty acid composition of Burlina cattle breed^*

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to characterise milk of Burlina local cattle breed for traits of technological and nutritional relevance, such as milk coagulation properties (MCP), and protein, major mineral and fatty acid (FA) composition. Burlina is mainly reared in mountain areas of Veneto Region (Italy) and it has been inserted in conservation plans aiming to avoid biodiversity loss and marginal pasture areas abandonment. Eighty-one individual milk samples were collected in four farms. Milk coagulation properties were determined using Formagraph, and protein, mineral and FA composition were analysed in high performance liquid chromatography, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and gas chromatography, respectively. Results evidenced good protein percentage (3.38%) and considerable casein content (28.89 mg/mL), as well as a desirable FA profile, with x-6 to x-3 ratio of 4.04. Somatic cell score, averaging 3.13, is a trait that should be enhanced through the improvement of farm management. This would have positive effects on MCP. Among milk minerals, the most and less abundant were K (1493.53 mg/kg) and Mg (110.07 mg/kg), respectively. Overall, herd, parity and lactation stage explained moderate to low variation of the studied traits. Results of the present study could be useful to valorise Burlina local breed and preserve biodiversity in marginal areas. ARTICLE HISTORY

Phenotypic analysis of milk coagulation properties and mineral content of Pinzgauer cattle breed

“…Among MCPs, a 30 was the trait with the greatest CV, in agreement with results from other authors (Toffanin et al, 2015;Varotto et al, 2015;Niero et al, 2016). As expected, milk was richer in K and Ca, and poorer in Mg (Gaucheron, 2005;Soyeurt et al, 2009;Niero et al, 2016;Visentin et al, 2016Visentin et al, , 2018. However, among minerals, K concentration showed the lowest CV (8.61 %) and Mg the greatest one (17.59 %; Table 1).…”

Fatty acid composition of milk from Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Simmental and Alpine Grey cows predicted by mid-infrared spectroscopy

“…This could explain the lower content of C14:0 and C16:0 in first lactation cows, as C14:0 and $50% of C16:0 are synthesised de novo in the mammary gland. Similar results were observed by Niero et al (2016) in Burlina breed, whose primiparous cows showed significantly lower levels of C16:0 and significantly higher levels of C18:1n9 with respect to cows of the other parities. Moreover, primiparous cows have on average lower rumen capacity and consequently lower dry matter intake and higher passage rate along the first two-thirds of the lactation, as well as lower capacity to adapt to the lactation diet (i.e.…”

“…This could have affected the levels of groups and individual FA across parity through a variation in the ruminal fermentation pattern toward a more acidogenic condition (Ramirez Ramirez et al 2016) leading to an increment of UFA, including both MUFA and PUFA. Again, a similar trend was observed in Burlina breed (Niero et al 2016) since the primiparous cows showed higher levels of UFA (29.96 vs an average of 27.12%) and MUFA (25.36 vs an average of 22.87%), and lower levels of SFA (69.72 vs an average of 72.78%) if compared to other parity cows. Primiparous cows are more susceptible to developing acidosis after parturition than multiparous cows (Krause & Oetzel 2006).…”

“…The content of groups of FA in milk of Aosta Red Pied breed was in general lower than that of breeds investigated in the present study. Calculations from Renna et al (2014) for groups of FA were however conducted differently than calculations from Niero et al (2016) and because of major differences, it appears that they were not comparable with values of the present report.…”

“…Both the latter breeds were found to have greater C14:0 (12.29 and 12.77%, respectively), C:18:0 (11.32 and 11.33%) and C:18:1 (23.64 and 23.44%) and lower levels of C16:0 (31.26 and 30.61%) compared with breeds considered in the present study. Other comparable data comes from Niero et al (2016) and Renna et al (2014) who investigated milk yield, milk quality and FA composition of Burlina, a typical local cattle breed of northeast Italy, and Aosta Red Pied breed, typical of northwest Italy. Milk from Burlina and Aosta Red Pied cows exhibited lower content of C14:0 (11.11 and 10.18%, respectively), C16:0 (29.16 and 28.17%) and C:18:0 (7.95 and 6.58%) compared with Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Simmental and Alpine Grey cows studied in the present work.…”