Composition of general goat and cattle breeds’ mineral and fatty acid composition of milk in Hungary

Abstract

In recent decades an increasingly important role in the human diet has been attached to goat milk and milk products, which distinguishes it from cow milk and makes it a valuable alternative. The objective of this study was to compare the mineral contents, fatty acid profile of milk from 10 Hungarian Improved White, 8 Alpine goat, and 6 Hungarian Simmental and 6 Holstein Friesian cow. The animals were kept same environment and fed nationwide accepted and widespread feeding technology. Milk was analysed for solids non fat, fat, protein, lactose, mineral content (Ca, P, Cu and Fe) and fatty acid contents. The based on the results, between the examined goat and cow breeds were not found significantly differences in minerals and fatty acid profile. Further more, ash (0.82 %), iron (Fe) (0.64 mg/kg) and copper (Cu) (0.19 mg/kg) content was higher in goat milk compared to cow milk (0.74%; 0.39 mg/kg; 0.07 mg/kg; P<0.05). On the other hand, we found differences between two breeds in fatty acid compositions. Levels of short chain fatty acids (13.03%), proportion of  polyunsaturated fatty acids (4.57%) and conjugated linoleic acid (0.80 %) are significantly higher in goat than in cow milk (4.29%; 2.67%; 0.50%; P<0.001) in our sample.