Chemical-physical characteristics and fatty acid composition of mare's milk

The chemical composition of mare's milk, which is poor in fat and proteins and very rich in lactose, is more similar to human milk than to mammary secretion from other species. Mare's milk is also characterised by a high whey protein content and is particularly rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. As a result, mare's milk exhibits interesting nutritional characteristics and an optimum potential for a future use as a dietetic, therapeutic food product. This work shows results on chemical-physical characteristics and fatty acid composition of some bulk milk samples obtained from Haflinger, Quarter horse, Sella and Salto and Rapid Heavy Draft breed mares. Results showed remarkable differences between the samples analysed, especially in total protein and fat content, fatty acid composition and protein fraction distribution. Quarter horse breed, as compared to the other breeds investigated, exhibited distinctive characteristics such as high main constituent content and high percentage of essential linoleic and linolenic fatty acids. Information obtained from this work may be considered as a starting point for carrying out further studies on individual breeds to promote a widespread use of mare's milk as an "alternative", therapeutic food product.