A comparison of milk protein, fat, lactose, total solids and amino acid profiles of three different buffalo breeds in Guangxi, China

• Main Authors: Ling Zhou, Qingfeng Tang, Muhammad Wasim Iqbal, Zhongsheng Xia, Feng Huang, Lili Li, Mingzhen Liang, Bo Lin, Guangsheng Qin, Caixia Zou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2018-10-01
• Series: Italian Journal of Animal Science
• Subjects: Amino acids; milk composition; buffalo
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1828051X.2018.1443288

This study compared the milk protein, fat, lactose, total solids and amino acids (AA) profiles of Murrah buffalo, Nili-Ravi buffalo and crossbreed buffalo. Buffalo milk samples of Murrah (n = 25), Nili-Ravi (n = 20) and Triple-crossbred (n = 23) were collected and milk protein, fat, lactose, total solids and 17 AA profiles were determined. Milk protein and total solids contents of Murrah buffalo were higher than those of Nili-Ravi buffalo (p < .05). The average milk protein, fat, lactose and total solids contents of all buffalo samples were 4.76, 7.31, 5.19 and 18.40 g/100 g of milk, respectively. The AA composition of all three kinds of milk samples was rich in glutamic acid (0.89–0.96 g/100 g of milk) and poor in cysteine (0.01–0.02 g/100 g of milk). Leucine, lysine, valine and isoleucine were the most prevalent essential amino acids; while glutamic acid, proline, aspartic acid and serine were the most prevalent non-essential amino acids in the three kinds of milk samples. Significant differences (p < .05) were observed for concentrations of Lys, Ile, Leu, Phe, Cys and His, while the other 11 amino acids had no significant differences (p > .05). Conclusively, the milk of Murrah buffalo, Nili-Ravi buffalo and crossbreed buffalo was all rich in glutamic acid while poor in cysteine contents. After crossbreeding, the milk production of Triple-crossbred buffalo was higher than the local Chinese buffalo and its milk composition was in between those of Murrah and Nili-Ravi.