MILK FATTY ACIDS COMPOSITION OF BEEF COWS AND THE INCIDENCE OF NUTRITIONAL MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY IN THEIR CALVES

Abstract

Milk fatty acid composition of 14 cows fed alfalfa–timothy hay (group 1) and 14 cows (both groups of the Shorthorn breed) fed oat hay (group 2) was determined at intervals from parturition to 2 months post-partum. Milk from group 2 cows contained higher levels of oleic and lower levels of palmitic, myristic, and pentadecanoic acid than the milk from group 1 cows. Two calves in the oat hay group and five in the alfalfa–timothy group died from nutritional muscular dystrophy (NMD), with the number of calves with elevated serum glutamic oxalacetic transaminase levels (indicative of NMD) significantly greater in the alfalfa–timothy than in the oat hay group. The milk consumed by dystrophic calves contained less oleic but more myristic and palmitic acids than consumed by healthy calves.