Miguel Ángel Duarte-Vázquez

The feeding of ruminants such as goats is critical because conferring nutraceutical characteristics to the milk. Alfalfa is forage used for feeding ruminants and depending on plant growth conditions, it will impact animal production. The production of goat’s milk has increased in recent years, the goat’s milk and its derivatives are relevant because of the quality and quantity of their proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Goat’s milk degrades significantly faster and has lower allergenicity than cow’s milk. Their fat composition reinforces those essential characteristics of goat’s milk. Goat’s milk has a higher concentration of caproic acid, caprylic acid, capric acid, palmitic acid, omega-3 linolenic acid and low content of long-chain fatty acids as stearic acids than cow’s milk and this indicates that the goat´s milk can be more easily attacked by digestive enzymes and high efficiency in lipid metabolism compared to cow´s milk. This review discusses the impact of the feeding system on the nutrimental and functional characteristics of goat’s milk.

Of the diversity of proteins and high digestibility, goat milk will be a food of significant value for infant nutrition. The genetic polymorphisms of milk proteins play an essential role in the different degrees of allergic reactions. This work aimed to identify the proteins and peptides in the composition of goat milk and compare them to those in cow’s milk. The work was performed with goats French Alpine, Nubian, and Creole breeds and Holstein Friesian milking cows at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Amazcala. We investigated the relative abundance of goat and cow milk protein fractions by SDS-PAGE resolution and the densitometric analysis of gels. The protein alfa-casein was (17.67 ± 0.46) for Creole, (19.18 ± 0.88) French Alpine, (17.35 ± 0.49) Nubian, and (35.92 ± 1.96) Holstein cows. The relative abundance obtained from alfa-casein was statistically different between goats and cows, and this protein was vital because it is a protein related to allergies. On the other hand, the amino acid in position 67 of the beta-casein from three goat breeds is a Proline, so it is assumed that the beta-casein variant of goat milk is an A2-type. The latter has excellent relevance for infant nutrition and differs from cow milk.

Infant formulas have been conventionally prepared with an excess of total protein in order to provide sufficient amounts of essential amino acids to the rapidly growing infant. However, this practice leads to higher than necessary protein intake during early infant development, inducing accelerated growth patterns correlated with the development of chronic diseases later in life. This study was aimed at assessing the safety of an infant formula enriched with bovine alpha-lactalbumin containing a total protein concentration very close to that of human milk, and determining its efficacy in the support of healthy infant growth from the first month to the fourth month of age. Healthy full-term infants ≤40 days of age were randomized in this controlled single blind trial to one of the following infant formulas: IF 1 (containing 1.0 g protein/dL; n = 30), IF 2 (containing 1.3 g protein/dL; n = 24), and IF 3 (containing 1.5 g protein/dL; n = 42). A control group consisting of exclusively breastfed infants (HM; n = 212) was included in the study. Anthropometric measurements and Z-scores were evaluated at baseline, at 1 month of age, and at 4 months of age. Weight gain (g/day) was similar in the IF 1 and the HM groups (p = 0.644), and it was significantly greater in the IF 2 and IF 3 groups than in the HM group. Growth patterns in both breastfed or IF-fed infants were in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards. At four months of age, the mean weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ) adjusted for initial value in the IF 1 group was similar to that of the HM group and significantly lower than that of the IF 2 and IF 3 groups (p = 0.031 and p = 0.014 for IF 2 and IF 3, respectively). Length-for-age (LAZ) adjusted for initial value was similar among all groups at four months of age. From 1 to 4 months of life, IF 1 containing 1.0 g protein/dL promotes growth and weight gain similar to those observed in exclusively breastfed infants. As this is a first approach to studying an IF containing total protein in a level below that recommended by international committees on nutrition, further investigations are needed to support these findings evaluating infant’s metabolic profile and growth in the long term.

Beta-casein (BC) is frequently expressed as BC A2 and BC A1 in cow’s milk. Gastrointestinal digestion of BC A1 results in the release of the opioid peptide beta-casomorphin 7 (BCM7) which is less likely to occur from BC A2. This work was aimed to produce milk containing BC A2 with no BC A1 (BC A2 milk) using genetically selected CSN2 A2A2 Jersey cows. Additionally, we aimed to develop an infant formula (IF) suitable for healthy full-term infants during the first six months of life based on BC A2 milk. The concentration of BCM7 released from BC A2 IF, from commercially available IFs as well as from human milk and raw cow’s milk was evaluated after simulated gastrointestinal digestion (SGID). BC A2 IF presented the lowest mean relative abundance of BC A1 (IF 1 = 0.136 ± 0.010), compared with three commercially available IFs (IF 2 = 0.597 ± 0.020; IF 3 = 0.441 ± 0.014; IF 4 = 0.503 ± 0.011). Accordingly, SGID of whole casein fraction from BC A2 IF resulted in a significantly lower release of BCM7 (IF 1 = 0.860 ± 0.014 µg/100 mL) compared to commercially available IFs (IF 2 = 2.625 ± 0.042 µg/100 mL; IF 3 = 1.693 ± 0.012 µg/100 mL; IF 4 = 1.962 ± 0.067 µg/100 mL). Nevertheless, BCM7 levels from BC A2 IF were significantly higher than those found in SGID hydrolysates of BC A2 raw milk (0.742 ± 0.008 µg/100 mL). Interestingly, results showed that BCM7 was also present in human milk in significantly lower amounts (0.697 ± 0.007 µg/100 mL) than those observed in IF 1 and BC A2 milk. This work demonstrates that using BC A2 milk in IF formulation significantly reduces BCM7 formation during SGID. Clinical implications of BC A2 IF on early infant health and development need further investigations.