Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:06:51.524Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The effect of physiological state, milk production traits and environmental conditions on milk fat globule size in cow's milk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2019

Leonie Walter*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Werribee, Victoria, 3030, Australia
Sue Finch
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Statistical Consulting Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010, Australia
Brendan Cullen
Affiliation:
Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia
Richard Fry
Affiliation:
Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia
Amy Logan
Affiliation:
CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Werribee, Victoria, 3030, Australia
Brian J. Leury
Affiliation:
Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Leonie Walter, Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This research was carried out to quantify the effects of a range of variables on milk fat globule (MFG) size for a herd of Holstein-Friesian cows managed through an automatic milking system with year-round calving. We hypothesised that the overall variation in average MFG size observed between individual animals of the same herd cannot sufficiently be explained by the magnitude of the effects of variables that could be manipulated on-farm. Hence, we aimed to conduct an extensive analysis of possible determinants of MFG size, including physiological characteristics (parity, days in milk, days pregnant, weight, age, rumination minutes, somatic cell count) and milk production traits (number of milkings, milk yield, fat yield, protein and fat content, fat-protein ratio) on the individual animal level; and environmental conditions (diet, weather, season) for the whole herd. Our results show that when analysed in isolation, many of the studied variables have a detectable effect on MFG size. However, analysis of their additive effects identified days in milk, parity and milk yield as the most important variables. In accordance with our hypothesis, the estimated effects of these variables, calculated using a multiple variable linear mixed model, do not sufficiently explain the overall variation between cows, ranging from 2.70 to 5.69 µm in average MFG size. We further show that environmental variables, such as sampling day (across seasons) or the proportion of pasture and silage in the diet, have limited effects on MFG size and that physiological differences outweigh the effects of milk production traits and environmental conditions. This presents further evidence that the selection of individual animals is more important than the adjustment of on-farm variables to control MFG size.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Hannah Dairy Research Foundation 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abeni, F, Degano, L, Calza, F, Giangiacomo, R and Pirlo, G (2005) Milk quality and automatic milking: fat globule size, natural creaming, and lipolysis. Journal of Dairy Science 88, 35193529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Altenhofer, C, Holzmüller, W, Wolfertstetter, F, Ribeiro, DW, Kulozik, U, Pfaffl, MW and Viturro, E (2015) Temporal variation of milk fat globule diameter, fat and cholesterol content and milk epithelial cell gene expression in dairy cows. International Journal of Dairy Technology 68, 519526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anonymous (2018) Dookie College Weather. Available at http://203.24.62.96/wpdookiecollege/weather/index.html (Accessed 25 March 2018).Google Scholar
Argov-Argaman, N, Mesilati-Stahy, R, Magen, Y and Moallem, U (2014) Elevated concentrate-to-forage ratio in dairy cow rations is associated with a shift in the diameter of milk fat globules and remodeling of their membranes. Journal of Dairy Science 97, 62866295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Briard, V, Leconte, N, Michel, F and Michalski, MC (2003) The fatty acid composition of small and large naturally occurring milk fat globules. European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology 105, 677682.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, SM, DePeters, EJ, Taylor, SJ, Rosenberg, M, Perez-Monti, H and Capps, VA (2006) Milk composition of Holstein, Jersey, and Brown Swiss cows in response to increasing levels of dietary fat. Animal Feed Science and Technology, Special Issue: Modifying Milk Composition 131, 451473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couvreur, S and Hurtaud, C (2017) Relationships between milks differentiated on native milk fat globule characteristics and fat, protein and calcium compositions. Animal: An International Journal of Animal Bioscience 11, 507518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Couvreur, S, Hurtaud, C, Marnet, PG, Faverdin, P and Peyraud, JL (2007) Composition of milk fat from cows selected for milk fat globule size and offered either fresh pasture or a corn silage-based diet. Journal of Dairy Science 90, 392403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evers, JM (2004) The milkfat globule membrane – compositional and structural changes post secretion by the mammary secretory cell. International Dairy Journal 14, 661674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, A, Schenkel, FS, Chen, J, Malchiodi, F, Ali, RA, Mallard, B, Sargolzaei, M, Corredig, M and Miglior, F (2017) Variation in fat globule size in bovine milk and its prediction using mid-infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Dairy Science 100, 16401649.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, PF and Kelly, AL (2012) Chemistry and biochemistry of milk constituents. In Simpson, BK (ed.), Food Biochemistry and Food Processing. Hoboken, USA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 442464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, J, van Dorland, HA, Bruckmaier, RM and Schwarz, FJ (2011) Milk fatty acid profile related to energy balance in dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Research 78, 479488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Logan, A, Auldist, M, Greenwood, J and Day, L (2014) Natural variation of bovine milk fat globule size within a herd. Journal of Dairy Science 97, 40724082.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lopez, C, Briard-Bion, V, Menard, O, Rousseau, F, Pradel, P and Besle, JM (2008) Phospholipid, sphingolipid, and fatty acid compositions of the milk fat globule membrane are modified by diet. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 56, 52265236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martini, M, Scolozzi, C, Cecchi, F and Abramo, F (2004) Morphometric analysis of fat globules in ewe's milk and correlation with qualitative parameters. Italian Journal of Animal Science 3, 5560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martini, M, Liponi, GB and Salari, F (2010) Effect of forage:concentrate ratio on the quality of ewe's milk, especially on milk fat globules characteristics and fatty acids composition. Journal of Dairy Research 77, 239244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martini, M, Altomonte, I, Bortoluzzi Moro, A, Caneppele, C and Salari, F (2016) Influence of fat content on quality of cow's milk. Italian Journal of Food Science 29, 138144.Google Scholar
McManaman, JL (2012) Milk lipid secretion: recent biomolecular aspects. Biomolecular Concepts 3, 581591.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mesilati-Stahy, R, Moallem, U, Magen, Y and Argov-Argaman, N (2015) Altered concentrate to forage ratio in cows ration enhanced bioproduction of specific size subpopulation of milk fat globules. Food Chemistry 179, 199205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Michalski, MC, Briard, V and Michel, F (2001) Optical parameters of milk fat globules for laser light scattering measurements. Le Lait 81, 787796.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salari, F, Altomonte, I, Ribeiro, NL, Ribeiro, MN, Bozzi, R and Martini, M (2016) Effects of season on the quality of Garfagnina goat milk. Italian Journal of Animal Science 15, 568575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, H and Gallier, S (2017) Nature's complex emulsion: the fat globules of milk. Food Hydrocolloids 68, 8189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorning, T, Raben, A, Tholstrup, T, Soedamah-Muthu, S, Givens, I and Astrup, A (2016) Milk and dairy products: good or bad for human health? An assessment of the totality of scientific evidence. Food & Nutrition Research 60, 32527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiking, L, Stagsted, J, Björck, L and Nielsen, JH (2004) Milk fat globule size is affected by fat production in dairy cows. International Dairy Journal 14, 909913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiking, L, Nielsen, JH, Båvius, AK, Edvardsson, A and Svennersten-Sjaunja, K (2006) Impact of milking frequencies on the level of free fatty acids in milk, fat globule size, and fatty acid composition. Journal of Dairy Science 89, 10041009.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Walter et al. supplementary material

Walter et al. supplementary material

Download Walter et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 314.8 KB