COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION OF MILK FROM DIFFERENT MAMMALIAN SPECIES

Résumé

This study was executed to analyse and compare the nutrient composition of milk from different animal species. A total of twelve (12) healthy lactating animals from four different species; cow, goat, sheep, and human were used for this study with 3 animals per species in a completely randomized design. Milk samples from the animals were analysed for crude protein, fat, ash, calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and phosphorus. The result showed that human milk has significantly (P<0.05), the highest crude protein (CP) of 7.58 %, while cow, goat and sheep have CP of 3.00, 4.69 and 1.95 % respectively. The fat content was significant (P<0.05) among the species and it ranged between 8.56 % in cow and 4.55 % in human. The total solid of cow (15.97 %) and goat milk (15.59 %) are comparable but both are significantly (P<0.05) different from that of sheep (14.96 %) and human (14.16 %). The Ca content of the milk was significantly (P<0.05) highest in sheep (6025 mg/Kg) while Mg and K content of the milk was highest in cow with 1658.8mg/Kg and 14,667 mg/Kg respectively. The lowest Mg content of 239.8 mg/Kg was recorded in sheep. It can be concluded from this study that variations do exist in the proportion of nutrients in milk of different mammalian species and other animal species milk have the potential to be used as substitute to cow milk in the diet.