Challenges in enriching milk fat with polyunsaturated fatty acids

Abstract

Milk fatty acid composition is determined by several factors including diet. The milk fatty acid profile of dairy cows is low in polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially those of the n-3 series. Efforts to change and influence fatty acid profile with longer chain polyunsaturated fatty acids have proven challenging. Several barriers prevent easy transfer of dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids to milk fat including rumen biohydrogenation and fatty acid esterification. The potential for cellular uptake and differences in fatty acid incorporation into milk fat might also have an effect, though this has received less research effort. Given physiological impediments to enriching milk fat with polyunsaturated fatty acids, manipulating the genome of the cow might provide a greater increase than diet alone, but this too may be challenged by the physiology of the cow.

Hypolipidemic and Hypocholesterolemic Effect of Roselle (<i>Hibiscus sabdariffa</i> L.) Seeds Oil in Experimental Male Rats

“…The contribution of fatty acids to the cholesterol levels varies with the nature of fatty acids. Therefore, the structure and type of fatty acids in triglyceride molecules, particularly the length of the chain of fatty acids are the major factors which may affect the levels of serum cholesterol 28 . The lowest level of cholesterol content 92.1 mg/dL at the end of the experiment 8 weeks was observed for rats fed diet containing roselle seed oil.…”

Effect of nanoemulsified oils addition on rumen fermentation and fatty acid proportion in a rumen simulation technique

“…On the other hand, rumen lipolysis and biohydrogenation act as barriers that prevent an easy transfer of the dietary PUFA to milk (Lanier and Corl, 2015). Rumen bacteria biohydrogenate toxic dietary unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) to saturated fatty acid (SFA) in order to protect their cellular construction.…”

Symposium review: Understanding diet–microbe interactions to enhance productivity of dairy cows

“…Microbial BH involves several isomerization and reduction reactions, resulting in formation of several intermediates, including trans-monoene and conjugated dienes, containing one or more trans double bonds (Jenkins et al, 2008;Bauman et al, 2011). One of the most important steps in the initial phase of BH is the isomerization of cis-9,cis-12 fatty acid to CLA isomers (Lanier and Corl, 2015). These isomers are finally reduced to trans 18:1 isomers.…”