Caracterização físico-química do colostro e leite de éguas puras e mestiças da raça quarto de milha

Abstract

Equideoculture has shown social and economic importance for Brazil, being mainly driven by the follow-up of equestrian sports, which imposes significant growth of the national herd. Although there is already considerable export of equine meat in Brazil, little is said about the exploitation of the milk of mares, a food of high nutritional value that stands out for the presence of bioactive compounds, the nutritional quality of the lipid and protein fractions and the similarity with human milk. The objective was to characterize, in physical and chemical aspects, the colostrum and the milk of pure and crossbred Quarter Horse mares. Pure (34) and crossbred (5) mares were selected in three different state farms, which were separated into groups according to age, calving order, physiological state and Quarter Horse blood grade. Colostrum samples were collected in the first six hours after parturition and the milk samples from the 7th day postpartum, with intervals of 14 days, until the end of lactation. The samples were refrigerated and sent to Laboleite (UFRN), where they were analyzed for chemical composition. Colostrum was evaluated by refractometry. The data were tabulated and subjected to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance by the F-Test and the groups were compared using the Tukey test, using the 5% level of significance. There was a high protein content and reduced lactose content for colostrum of Quarter Horse mares. Milk has no composition influenced by the degree of blood or the age of the matrices. However, variations in the lactation stage and the calving order alter the chemical composition of the Milk Quarter.