Time-dependent variations in milk fatty acid content of goats fed 3 different plant oils

The effect of sampling time on milk fatty acid (FA) composition after separately adding 3 plant oils to an oil-free control diet (67% cereal-soybean-based concentrate and 33% alfalfa hay) was studied in 12 Malagueña goats. Individual animals were randomly allocated to 1 of the 4 treatments: control, 48 g/d of added high oleic (OSO) or regular (RSO) sunflower oil, or linseed oil (LO). Individual milk samples were taken at 0 (covariate), 1, 12, 24, 72, 120, 192, 312, and 504 h after the beginning of the experiment. Milk FA contents (g/100g of total FA methyl esters) were analyzed in a completely randomized design with repeated measures using PROC MIXED of SAS (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Comparing results of 15 chosen FA (for example, medium-chain saturated FA trans-11 C18:1, cis-9,trans-11 C18:2, trans-10 C18:1, and C18:3n-3) indicated that throughout the duration of the experiment, feeding the control diet had little influence on the concentrations of most FA in milk. Most changes in milk FA composition due to oil supplementation had occurred within 192 h since the beginning of the experiment. However, the concentrations of 2 FA (trans-10 C18:1 in RSO and C18:3n-3 in LO treatments) continued to change until 504 h. By comparing FA values in milk fat from oil treatments with those of the control at the same sampling times, typical value differences for the 3 supplementary oils found at 504 h (21 d) were also observed at 312 h from the beginning of the experiment (13 d) and even earlier in some FA, such as medium-chain saturated FA at 120 h in RSO and LO and at 72 h in OSO, cis-9,trans-11 C18:2 and trans-10 C18:1 at 24h in RSO, trans-11 C18:1 at 12h in RSO and LO, and C18:3n-3 at 1h in LO. In the conditions assayed in these experiments, reliable results of milk FA changes were obtained at sampling times shorter than 21 d. Monitoring early changes in milk FA after the addition of plant oils to diets could help in the study of rumen and mammary metabolism of dietary FA.