The objective was to reduce saturated fatty acids (SFA) and increase conjugated linoleic acid (CLA, cis-9, trans-11 C 18:2 ), α-linolenic (cis-9, cis-12, cis-15

The objective of the experiment was to improve the healthy value of milk fatty acids (FA) by feeding sunflower oil (SO) or sunflower seed (SS) combined or not with fish oil (FO) to grazing dairy cows. Four Holstein cows (515 ± 80 kg liveweight) in late lactation (230 days postpartum) fitted with ruminal cannulae were allotted to a 4 × 4 Latin square design with factorial arrangement of treatments: SS = 1.9 kg dry matter (DM)/cow/d of SS; SO = 0.8 kg/cow/d of SO; SS-FO = SS + 0.24 kg/cow/d FO and SO-FO = SO + 0.24 kg/FO. Cows grazed a high quality pasture offered at 11 kg DM/cow/day. After the afternoon milking cows also received 5.6 kg DM/cow of corn silage and during each milking time cracked corn grain (1.3 kg DM/cow) mixed with a mineral-vitamin premix was fed. Oils and SS were introduced via ruminal cannulae and SS was fed roughly grounded. Milk yield tended (p < 0.07) to increase in SO treatments (9.9 vs 8.7 kg/d). Yields (kg/d) of fat corrected milk (FCM) (8.01 vs 6.37) and milk fat (0.27 vs 0.191) increased (p < 0.05) in SO diets and milk fat content was not affected. Milk protein concentration (40.5 vs 37.0 g/kg) and yield (0.397 vs 0.322 kg/d) were higher (p < 0.05) in SO without effects of FO or their interaction. Milk cholesterol content did not differ. The reduction in the atherogenic saturated FA of milk averaged 63% for C 12:0 , 51% for C 14:0 and 29% for C 16:0 . Atherogenicity index (AI) of milk was reduced particularly in SS-FO. Basal concentration of cis-9, trans-11 C 18:2 (CLA) in milk was 1.39 g/100g FA and increased (p < 0.05) by 144% across treatments without differences between SS or SO. Feeding FO increased (p < 0.05) milk contents of CLA (2.86 to 3.92 g/100g FA) and linolenic acid. Comparing SO or SS with or without FO showed no changes for neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and crude protein (CP) degradation of pasture. Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) fed to grazing dairy cows had a marked effect on milk FA profile putatively

No abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the changes in milk fatty acid (FA) profile of grazing buffaloes fed either low (L, 276g/d) or high (H, 572g/d) doses of a blend (70:30, wt/wt) of soybean and linseed oils. Fourteen multiparous Mediterranean buffaloes grazing on a native pasture were fed 4 kg/day of a commercial concentrate containing no supplemental oil over a pre-experimental period of ten days. The baseline milk production and composition and milk FA profile were measured over the last three days. After this pre-experimental period the animals received the same concentrate added with either the L or H oil doses for 26 additional days. Milk yield (g/animal/day) did not differ at the start (1776 ± 522 and 1662 ± 291 for L and H, respectively, P<0.622) or at the end of the trial (4590 ± 991 and 4847 ± 447 in L and H, respectively, P<0.543). Baseline milk fat content (g/kg) averaged 77.1 (±20.5) in L and 74.3 (±9.9) in H (P<0.10) and was reduced (P<0.031) to 60.7 (±23.6) and 49.4 (±11.2) (P<0.0031) respectively after L and H with no differences between treatments (P<0.277). Baseline milk protein content (L=43.2 ± 3.4 and H= 44.3 ± 6.9g/kg) increased after oil supplementation (P<0.0001) in both L (73.2 ± 6.0g/kg) and H (68.4 ± 4.9g/kg) without differences between oil doses (P<0.123). Milk fat content of 14:0 decreased after oil supplementation only in the H treatment (5.29 to 4.03, P<0.007) whereas that of 16:0 was reduced (P<0.001) at both L (24.49 to 19.75g/100g FA) and H (25.92 to 19.17g/100g FA) doses. The reduction of total content of 12:0 to 16:0 was higher (P<0.052) in H (32.02 to 23.93g/100g FA) than L (30.17 to 25.45g/100g FA). Vaccenic acid content increased (P<0.001) from 5.70 to 13.24g/100g FA in L and from 5.25 to 16.77 in H, with higher results in the in H treatment (P<0.001). Baseline rumenic acid was sharply increased (P<0.001) in L (1.80 to 4.09g/100g FA, +127%) and H (1.60 to 4.61g/100g FA, +187%) with no differences between L and H (P<0.19). Overall, these results indicate a pronounced improvement in the nutritional value of milk fat from grazing buffaloes fed little amounts (0.276g/day) of a blend of soybean and linseed oils.

Thirty-six grazing dairy cows were used to determine the effect of combinations of soybean (SO), and linseed (LO) oils on milk production, composition and milk fatty acid (FA) profile. Treatments were a basal control diet (56% pasture, 44% concentrate) or the control diet supplemented with oils at 4% of estimated total dry matter (DM) intake. Oils were manually mixed to the concentrate in pure forms (SO100 or LO100) or in blends (%w/w) at SO75 -LO25, SO50 -LO50 and SO25 -LO75. Concentrate and oils were thoroughly consumed. Pasture intake (kg DM/cow•day) was 9.27 in control and decreased (p < 0.05) in SO25 -LO75 (8.09) and LO100 (8.98). Total DM intake (kg/cow•day) in control (16.47) increased (p < 0.05) to 17.04 in SO100 and 17.20 in SO75. Yield of fat corrected milk (4% FCM) averaged 20.73 kg in control resulting higher in SO75 (23.73 kg). Milk fat content (g/100g) in control averaged 3.40 and decreased to 2.79 in SO50-LO50 and to 3.06 in SO25 -LO75 treatments. Milk protein content was not affected and milk protein yield increased in SO100 (11%) and SO75 -LO25 (21%) . Results obtained confirmed a great milk fat plasticity in response to PUFA feeding in grazing dairy cows which constitutes a very effective and easy tool in order to improve the healthy value of milk with a potential benefit to the consumer's health. A net or conclusive response pattern over parameters that improve the healthy value of milk to soybean and linseed oils and their blends was not clearly detected. Taken together, the results suggest some advantage for the SO75:LO25 blend considering the relative costs of both oils, the positive effects on milk, fat and protein yields, the lower hypercholesterolemic FA content of milk and the increase in VA and RA content while maintaining a healthy n − 6/n − 3 ratio and very low levels of the detrimental trans-9 C18:1 and trans-10 C18:1 FA.