Mare Milk

Equine Milk Production and Valorization of Marginal Areas—A Review

“…From a nutritional point of view, it is also important to highlight the hypocaloric content (Table 1) that makes equine milk an inadequate food for infants, when not supplemented with vegetal oil (about 40g L −1 ) [28]. The ash content of equine milk (Table 1), which is intermediate between human and cow milk, shows a decline throughout the lactation consistent with Ca and P concentrations in milk [15,20]. Although the absolute values of Ca and P in equine milk are reported variable, and in average higher than in human milk, the Ca:P ratio is reported to be in average 1.3 and 1.72, respectively, for donkey and horse milk, while it accounts for 1.7 and 1.23 in human and bovine milk, respectively [31][32][33].…”

“…The nutritional and therapeutic peculiarities of equine milk are known since ancient times, as Hippocrates [13] and Herodotus [14] described in the 5th century BC. Moreover, the consumption of koumiss (or airag), i.e., a traditional drink made in Central Asia, according to a nomads' recipe [15], is reported in literature, not only as an ingredient of the traditional "white diet" of the Mongolian steppes population [16], but also as a popular remedy for a variety of diseases [17,18]. The traditional use of donkey milk is also reported in China and South America for the treatment of many illnesses [19].…”

“…In Europe, the dairy equine enterprise started up in France as part of a project on animal diversity preservation [21], and spread out in many marginal areas of the world where these monogastric herbivores are well adapted to difficult environments, with scarce availability of forages, often of poor-quality. Today, equine milk is mainly marketed for human consumption as raw, pasteurized, or freeze-dried [22], and as fermented derivatives [15]. In Italy, the price of donkey milk ranges from 9 to 15 €/L of raw milk, 14 to 17.5 €/L of pasteurized milk, and 27.5 to 36 €/100 g of powdered milk, either spray dried or lyophilized [23,24].…”

“…Their role in milk may be related to the regulation of growth, to the development and maturation of the neonatal gut, and of the immune and neuroendocrine system of the newborn [48]. Considering the species-specificity of many proteins, it is worth noting that leptin has been measured as human equivalent in both horse and donkey milk, and human-like ghrelin, IGF-1, and triiodothyronine (T3) were measured in donkey milk [15,20]. It is worth noting that the milk T3 content was affected by the diet in lactating donkeys [55].…”

“…In intensive farming systems, the dairy mare and jenny are milked in ad hoc facilities equipped with sheep milking machines adapted to the equine mammary characteristics [15,68]. With trained animals and skilled operators, no difference was observed in the amount of milk harvested manually or mechanically per milking session, but milk microbial contamination can be reduced by the proper use of milking machine.…”