Influence of management type and stage of lactation on the performance and milk fatty acid profile of dairy camels (Camelus dromedaries)

Abstract

The current research paper addresses the hypothesis that management system (grazing vs. stabling) and/or stage of lactation (early- to late-lactation) can influence the lactation performance and milk fatty acid (MFA) profile in dromedary camels. The results obtained revealed that milk and protein yields of stabled camels were higher, while milk fat content was lower compared to grazing camels. In addition, stabled camels produced milk richer in short- and medium-chains fatty acids but lower in long-chain fatty acids and fatty acids linked with possible health benefits such as oleic acid, vaccenic acid (VA) and rumenic acid (RA), when compared to grazing camels. Moreover, atherogenicity index was higher, while overall Δ9-desaturase and health-promoting indices were lower in stabled camels. In a similar way, results demonstrated an increase in milk fat and protein contents as lactation advanced. In fact, camels at mid-lactation produced milk richer in short- and medium-chain fatty acids as well as total saturated fatty acids but poorer in oleic acid, VA, RA, long-chain fatty acids and total unsaturated fatty acids, when compared to milk samples collected at early stage of lactation. Moreover, compared to early- and late-lactations, atherogenicity index was higher while overall-Δ9-desaturase and health promoting indexes were lower at mid-lactation. In conclusion, the intensive stabling system and mid-lactation stage can alter lactation performance and MFA profile in dairy dromedary camels.

A Comprehensive Review of the Composition, Nutritional Value, and Functional Properties of Camel Milk Fat

“…This discrepancy could have been due to different authors using different analytical techniques and measurement units. Some studies reported that DHA of both CM fats existed in small amounts lower than 0.2% [ 35 , 36 , 86 , 88 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 ]; however, other studies have found no evidence of presence of DHA. Nevertheless, CM can still be used in infant nutrition, but addition of AA and DHA are needed, as their metabolism is limited [ 79 , 101 ].…”

“…While C. dromedarius milk fat contains more MUFAs (36.70%) than C. bactrianus CM fat (31.40%), as reported by Zhao et al [ 103 ]. The FA composition was studied without taking into account the variations due to seasonal conditions in the majority of the literature data [ 11 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 18 , 20 , 54 , 68 , 88 , 97 , 102 , 104 ], suggesting that this aspect should be considered in the future. Yet, short-chain FAs (C8:0 and C10:0) were found to be more abundant in the spring, while LC-FAs (C17:0 and C17:1) were found to be more abundant in the autumn [ 11 ].…”

Effect of nongenetic factors on milk compositional aspects and bacteriological quality in Tunisian Maghrebi dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius) reared under a traditional pastoral management system

“…Because of the rising market demand (Chamekh et al, 2020) and the potential health-promoting properties (Al Haj & Al Kanhal, 2010), camel milk have been given much attention and many studies on milk quantity and quality have been published in the world (Ahmed et al, 2012;Abdalla et al, 2015;Nagy et al, 2017;Ismaili et al, 2019;Karaman et al, 2021) and in Tunisia (Jemmali et al, 2016;Ayadi et al, 2018;Fguiri et al, 2018;Chamekh et al, 2020). Medium to largescale variability in camel's milk Characteristics and quality aspects have been found in the literature showing that the main factors of variation were genetics (Aljumaah et al, 2012;Nagy et al, 2017), age (Al-Juboori et al, 2013;Abdalla et al, 2015;Singh et al, 2017), stage of lactation (Konuspayeva et al, 2010;Musaad et al, 2013), parity (Ahmed et al, 2012;Musaad et al, 2013;Chamekh et al, 2020), season (Abdalla et al, 2015;Nagy et al, 2017), calf sex (Nagy et al, 2017), geographical origin (Shuiep et al, 2008;Adugna et al, 2013), production system (Babiker & El-Zubeir, 2014;Aljumaah et al, 2012;Musaad et al, 2013;Ayadi et al, 2018), feed composition (Al-Saiady et al, 2012Faye et al, 2013), milking practices (Ayadi et al, 2009;Jemmali et al, 2016) and health status (Konuspayeva et al, 2009;Pak et al, 2019).…”

Baseline composition and microbial quality assessment of raw milk from endemic small ruminants and Maghrebi camels in the oasis area of Tunisia

“…Such studies on physicochemical composition and bacteriological quality are extremely limited for sheep, goats, and one-humped camels raised in western oasis areas. The limited literature available refers only to the local goat (Gaddour et al 2014;Ayeb et al 2016) and camel species (Ayadi et al 2018;Fguiri et al 2018;Chamekh et al 2020) reared in the southeastern region. Indeed, there is no study report on the content of casein, the concentrations of minerals, the number of bacteria, and the prevalence of pathogenic germs in small ruminant milk.…”