Small Ruminant Research 33 (1999) 137143

Effect of feeding canola oil on constituents, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and long chain fatty acids in goats milk
Z. Mira,*, L.A. Goonewardeneb, E. Okineb, S. Jaegarc, H.D. Scheera
b

Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, PO Box 3000, Lethbridge, Alta., Canada T1J 4B1 Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, # 204-7000-113 Street, Edmonton, Alta., Canada T6H 5T6 c Birchwood Farms, RR1, Pickardville, Alta., Canada TOG 4P2 Accepted 26 January 1999

Abstract Four Alpine does were used in a 4 4 Latin square design to determine the effects of feeding canola oil at four levels: 0 (no oil), 2% (40 g), 4% (80 g) and 6% (120 g) of grain intake, on milk constituents, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and long chain fatty acids. Milk fat percent was highest and lowest (p < 0.02) in goats fed the 6 and 0% canola oil, respectively. Feeding canola had no effect (p > 0.05) on milk yield, percent protein and lactose, C18:2 and C18:3 fatty acids. The CLA in milk increased (p < 0.01) from 10.35 to 19.42 and 32.05 mg g1 fat when does were fed 2 and 4% canola oil, respectively. There were linear and quadratic increases (p < 0.01) in the level of C18:1 and a quadratic decrease (p < 0.01) in the medium and short chain fatty acids C16 in response to feeding incremental levels of canola oil. The ratio of C18:018:1 to C16 increased (p < 0.01) linearly as the level of canola oil in the diet increased. The transfer coefcient of converting dietary CLA and C18:1 to CLA and oleic acid in milk was 52.69 and 0.24, respectively. Changes in milk fat composition are feasible by feeding canola oil to goats, thereby producing a value-added product with a more favorable fatty acid prole. # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Goats; Canola oil; Fatty acids; Milk; Conjugated linoleic acid

1. Introduction Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) refers to a class of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid. They are recognized as having antioxidative and anticarcinogenic properties in animal model studies (Ip et al., 1991; Jiang et al., 1996; Parodi, 1997). In addition, CLA has been shown to stimulate immune response and protect against arteriosclerosis (Cook et al., 1993; Lee et al., 1994). Dietary sources from ruminants such
*Correspinding author.

as milk, cheese and meats contain more CLA than foods of non-ruminant origin (Fogerty et al., 1988; Jiang et al., 1996). Safower oil or full-fat rapeseed supplementation of diets fed to lambs or dairy cows, respectively, have been shown to increase CLA content in meat (Mir et al., 1997) and milk (Stanton et al., 1997). Lower roughage to concentrate ratios in dairy cattle diets have also been shown to increase CLA levels in milk (Jiang et al., 1996). Goat milk has been identied as an alternative for infants and adults who are either sensitive or allergic to cow milk (Saini and Gill, 1991). The nutritional

0921-4488/99/$ see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 4 4 8 8 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 1 6 - 4

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advantage of goat's milk compared to cow's milk has been attributed to the small size of the fat globules, hence making the product more easily digestible. In addition, about 20% of the fatty acids in goat's milk are short chain (C4:0C12:0), which are readily digested (Jenness, 1980). The addition of fats to ruminant diets is done primarily to increase energy levels of the diet (Mir, 1988). However, more recently, fats have been added to ruminant diets with the intention of changing the fatty acid proles in milk to better suite human dietary concerns (Aldrich et al., 1997). Human diets rich in C12:0, C14:0 and C16:0 fatty acids have been recognized as hypercholesterolemic while C18:0 and C18:1 fatty acids have cholesterol lowering properties (Bonanome and Grundy, 1988; Berner, 1993). Increasing the CLA content and changing the fatty acid prole in milk by dietary manipulation may provide a value-added food. The objective of the present study was to determine if the constituents and fatty acid composition (specically CLA) in goat milk could be changed by feeding different levels of canola oil. 2. Materials and methods The study was conducted during the winter months from December 16, 1996 to February 15, 1997 at Birchwood Farm, Pickardville, Alta, Canada. Four non-pregnant late lactation (187191 days in milk) Alpine does with an average body weight of 74.3 7.2 kg, in their rst lactation were used. The does were penned individually in an unheated barn and provided a diet of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) cubes, a vitamin-mineral mixture and water free choice. Each pen had deep straw bedding which was replaced monthly. The vitaminmineral mixture contained 435 g kg1 dicalcium phosphate, 239 g kg1 limestone, 65 g kg1 magnesium oxide, and 217 g kg1 trace mineral (guaranteed analysis: 965 mg g1 NaCl, 4 mg g1 Zn, 1.6 mg g1 Fe, 1.2 mg g1 Mg, 0.35 mg g1 Cu, 0.007 mg g1 I and 0.04 mg g1 Co); Vitamin A, D and E premix (guaranteed analysis: 4,400,000 IU/kg1 Vitamin A, 1,100,000 IU/kg Vitamin D and 7700 IU/kg Vitamin E). During the morning milking, each doe received 2 kg of rolled barley to which the canola oil was added (or not added) to make up the four dietary treatments: no canola oil (control),

2% (40 g oil), 4% (80 g oil) and 6% (120 g) canola oil of dietary rolled barley. Canola oil contained in descending order, 61% C18:1 (oleic), 20% C18:2 (linoleic), 9.0% C18:3 (linolenic), 4.1% C16:0 (palmitic) and 2.0% C18:0 (stearic) acids (Canbra Foods, Lethbridge, AB Canada). The does were fed 2 kg of barley which was completely consumed and they ate about 2 kg of alfalfa cubes per day, which was approximately 5.3% of their average body weight on an as fed basis (4.8% on a DM basis). Any alfalfa cube refusal was collected daily. The study was designed as a 4 4 Latin square where the dietary treatments were rotated among four does over a 4-week experimental period. Does were hand milked in their own pens each morning. In the last week of experimental period, 120 ml milk samples were collected each morning on Day 2, 4 and 6. The milk samples were frozen and analyzed for percent butterfat, percent protein (AOAC, 1984, # 972.16), percent lactose (AOAC, 1984, # 972.16), CLA, C18 fatty acids and fatty acids C16 ( C16 C16:1). Milk yields per day (morning afternoon) were recorded on Day 6 within each week of sampling. A 10-day rest period was allowed before switching the goats to the next treatment. All the animals were managed in accordance with the Canadian Council of Animal Care guidelines. The barley grain and alfalfa cubes were analyzed (Table 1) on four occasions, at the beginning and end of the study and once each in January and February for CP (AOAC, 1984, methods 7.0337.037), Ca, P and ADF (AOAC, 1984, # 7.0747.077). Milk fat extraction was based on the method described by Jiang et al. (1996). A 8 ml milk sample was transferred into a separatory funnel, and 14 ml of isopropanol were added. After vigorous shaking for 3 min, 10.5 ml of hexane were added, and the mixture was ushed with nitrogen and shaken for another 3 min. The mixture was then transferred to test tubes and centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 5 min at 58C, and the upper layer was transferred to a second separatory funnel. The lower layer was extracted twice with 10.5 ml of hexane, and the supernatant were pooled with the previous hexane layer. After addition of 7 ml of 0.47 M aqueous Na2SO4, the hexane layer was collected into a ask and evaporated under nitrogen in a 408C water bath. The residue was redissolved in 2 ml of chloroform, ushed with nitrogen and stored at 208C until ready for derivatization.

Z. Mir et al. / Small Ruminant Research 33 (1999) 137143 Table 1 Analysis of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) Ca, P, acid detergent fibre (ADF) and digestible energy (DE) of alfalfa and barley Feed Alfalfa Barley DM (g kg1) 924 18 880 8 CP (g kg1) 169.2 35.1 130.1 7.2 Ca (g kg1) 22.2 4.2 4.1 0.2 P (g kg1) 2.2 0.3 3.7 0.1 ADF (g kg1) 348.2 19 81.0 24

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DE (Mcal kg1) 2.70 0.05 3.72 0.03

DE calculated value (NRC, 1981).

The chloroform was dried under nitrogen with a 408C water bath, and the total amount of lipid extract was determined gravimetrically. A known amount of extracted lipid was derivatized using tetramethylguanidine (TMG) and methanol, as described by Shanta and Decker (1993), with 21 : 0 (heneicosanoic acid) as the internal standard. Briey, the total lipid extract was redissolved in 2 ml of hexane, and a volume of the mixture was transferred to a test tube so that 1020 mg of dried lipid extract was in the tube. Once the exact mass was determined, 25 ml of 20 mg/ml 21 : 0 standard was added to each sample, followed by 400 ml of methanol and 100 ml of TMG. The tube was ushed with nitrogen and the mixture was heated in boiling water, with caps on, for 10 min. After cooling, 5 ml of saturated NaCl solution and 2 ml of petroleum ether were added to each tube. The tube was ushed with nitrogen and placed on a test tube rocker for 5 min. It was then centrifuged for 5 min. The organic phase was transferred to a new test tube, dried under nitrogen in a water bath at room temperature, and the contents were re-suspended in exactly 5 ml hexane. This mixture was ushed with nitrogen and stored at 208C until fatty acid proles were determined by gas chromatography. Fatty acid analysis was carried out in duplicate on a Supelcowax-10, 30 m 0.25 mm 0.25 mm column (Sigma Aldrich Canada, Oakville, Ont., Canada) installed in an HP5830 gas chromatograph tted with a 18835B capillary inlet system, 18850A integrator (Hewlett-Packard, Mississauga, Ont., Canada), using a ame ionization detector and split less injection. Initial GC temperature was 508C which was increased to 2008C at a rate of 258C per minute, from 200 to 2208C the temperature was increased at a rate of 18C per minute, and from 220 to 2408C at a rate of 158C per minute. Helium was used as the carrier gas at a ow rate of 1.7 ml/min. Identication of fatty acids was by comparison to retention times of known standards (Sigma Aldrich Canada, Oakville, Ont.,

Canada). Amounts of fatty acids present were determined by calculation based on the internal standard concentration. Isomers of CLA were identied by comparison to the standard. All isomers of CLA corresponding to peaks identied as c-9,t-11/t-9,c12 and c-10,c-12 (Ha et al., 1989) were present. The data were analyzed as a Latin square, using the General Linear Model of SAS (SAS Institute, 1992) and a Student Newman Keul's test was used to separate means. Linear and quadratic trends for the dependent variables relative to feeding incremental levels of canola oil were derived using SAS Institute (1992). 3. Results The nutrient analysis for alfalfa and barley is shown in Table 1. Based on NRC (1981) recommendations, a 75 kg doe producing 2.5 kg milk day1 with 5.5% butter fat would require 7.3 Mcal DE and 321 g CP per day. The nutrients supplied by feeding the does 2 kg barley (1.76 kg DM) and 2 kg alfalfa (1.84 kg DM) was 11.5 Mcal DE and 535 g CP per day on a DM basis, which exceeded the NRC requirements. Daily milk yields, protein, lactose, CLA, fatty acids and ratios of fatty acids in milk as a response to feeding canola oil are shown in Table 2. Milk yields were not (p > 0.05) affected by feeding canola oil. Percent fat increased linearly in response to feeding canola oil. Feeding canola oil at the 4 and 6% levels increased (p < 0.02) fat by 20.4 and 24.9% compared to the no oil treatment. Feeding canola oil had no effect (p > 0.05) on protein or lactose percent in milk. Feeding canola oil at 2 and 4% increased CLA in milk by 88 and 210% respectively, compared to the no canola oil treatment (p < 0.01). Increasing the canola oil content to the 6% level did not further increase the CLA content in milk. The C18:0 and C18:1 fatty acids increased (p < 0.01) when canola oil was fed, but the increases were insignicant beyond the 2% level of

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Table 2 Milk constituents, CLA, long chain fatty acids and fatty acid ratios in response to feeding canola oil Item Milk yield (kg) Fat (%) Protein (%) Lactose (%) CLA mg g1 fat C16:0 mg g1 fat C18:0 mg g1 fat C18:1 mg g1 fat C18:2 mg g1 fat C18:3 mg g1 fat MSFA mg g1 fatc Total C18 mg g1 fat C18:0 C18:1:MSFA
a b

0-canola 2.20 4.50d 3.67 4.50 10.53d 443.6d 61.22d 207.34d 43.54 10.70 666.86d 322.79d 0.41d

2% canola 2.27 4.9e 3.65 4.48 19.42e 395.9e 85.59e 243.16e 38.93 9.43 603.42e 377.16e 0.55e

4% canola 2.39 5.42e,f 3.64 4.56 32.05f 359.1e 89.94e 279.05f 39.24 8.61 551.12f 416.83f 0.68f

6% canola 2.33 5.62f 3.75 4.56 29.46f 341.5f 93.80e 289.10f 43.87 9.94 533.83f 436.71f 0.74g

SEMa 0.67 0.18 0.11 0.06 2.80 6.90 4.62 6.71 1.50 0.65 8.33 9.31 0.03

p NS <0.01 NS NS <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 NS NS <0.01 <0.01 <0.01

b

Lin. NS ** NS NS ** ** ** ** NS * ** ** **

Quad. NS NS NS NS ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Pooled standard error of the mean. Not significant (p > 0.05). c MSFA Medium and short chain fatty acids C16. ( C16 C16:1). d,e,f,g Means with different row superscripts denote significance (p < 0.05).

canola oil for C18:0 and 4% level of canola for C18:1. Feeding canola oil had no effect on the C18:2 and C18:3 fatty acid contents in milk. There were linear and quadratic increases (p < 0.01) in total C18 fatty acids primarily due to increases in C18:0 and C18:1 fatty acids. A decrease (p < 0.01) in the medium to short chain fatty acids C16:0 were observed up to the 4% canola level and the difference between the two treatments was 17.4%. The ratio of the C18:0 and C18:1 fatty acids to the medium to short chain fatty acids increased from 0.41 in the no canola to 0.74 in the 6% canola oil treatment. 4. Discussion The marginal average increase in body weights of 1.13 kg 0.26 of all the does during the experimental period and the similarity in milk yields would suggest that the energy and protein provided by all diets, although higher than NRC (1981) estimates, were adequate to meet the requirements for maintenance and milk production. Non-lactating does that were fed NRC and 20% above NRC requirements have been reported to lose weight under winter conditions in Canada (Goonewardene et al., 1997). The minimum and maximum temperatures respectively on the farm during the experiment were 20.4 and 11.98C in

December, 21.1 and 9.98C in January and 8.9 and 1.18C in February. The average milk fat percent of 4.5 for the no canola treatment in our study with Alpine goats is higher than values reported by Jandal (1996), but similar to the values reported for other dairy goats (Hadjipanayiotou et al., 1996). The increase in fat by over one percentage unit (between no canola and 6% canola treatments) in this study is a reection of the net increase in the fatty acids due to the inclusion of canola oil in the diet. The milk protein and lactose percentages showed little response to the feeding of canola oil, although some studies have reported decreases in milk protein in fat supplemented dairy cattle diets (Christensen et al., 1994). Goat milk contains less lactose compared to cow milk (Jenness, 1980) and our values are marginally higher than those reported by Jandal (1996) for goats. Compared to the studies of Jiang et al. (1996) data from the present study show that goats' milk has relatively more CLA compared to cow's milk. Jiang et al. (1996) were able to double the CLA content from 5.04 to 11.28 mg g1 of fat by feeding a higher concentrate to roughage ratio to dairy cows, without appreciably increasing the fat percentage. Stanton et al. (1997) found that rapeseed supplementation resulted in a 65% increase in CLA content of milk

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over non-supplemented control but the total fat percentage was not reported. These are different to our results where both the fat percent and CLA increased signicantly when canola oil was fed. The data from the present study further indicate not only a change in the proportion of fatty acids but also an increase in the net amount of fat in milk. The 209.7% increase in CLA when goats were fed 4% canola oil compared to no canola is an indication that goats respond well to feeding canola oil and that major changes in the CLA content in milk is feasible. The transfer or efciency coefcient of a fatty acid from the diet to milk was calculated by regressing the total fatty acid content in milk on the total fed, both variables expressed in g day1 (Palmquist et al., 1993). The regression coefcient (slope) is interpreted as the transfer or efciency coefcient and the Y intercept the amount in grams that is contributed by the body tissues. Canola oil contains 0.5 CLA mg g1 fat (Chin et al., 1992) and on this basis between 0.02 and 0.06 CLA g day1 would have been consumed by these goats fed 40, 80 or 120 g of canola oil. Based on the CLA recovery rates of between 0.27 and 6.6 g day1 in the milk, the transfer coefcient was calculated as 52.69. Our data suggest that dietary CLA contributed little to the CLA recovered in the milk and the high amounts present in milk may have originated from other precursors such as, C18:2 and C18:3 by activity of rumen bacteria (Fujimoto et al., 1993). This supports earlier work (Mir et al., 1997) which indicated that inclusion of CLA in ruminant diet does not result in increase in tissue CLA content. Results from our laboratory and other studies suggests that the origin of most of the CLA in milk and meat tissues is from rumen microbial activities. However, there has been some evidence that CLA can be formed endogenously from tissue desaturation of trans C18:1 of rumen origin (Corl et al., 1998). Increases in the levels of C18:0 and C18:1 fatty acids are similar to observations by Aldrich et al. (1997). They reported increases in C18:0 levels from 87.7 in the control to 158.6 mg g1 of fat and C18:1 from 201.3 in the control to 336.0 mg g1 of fat, when crushed canola seed was fed to dairy cows. However, increasing the concentrate to roughage ratio had little or no effect in altering the C18:0 but increased the C18:1 fatty acid levels in milk (Jiang et al., 1996). Ashes et al. (1992) reported an increase in C18:0 and C18:1 levels

when encapsulated (protected) canola seed was fed to dairy cows. Milk fat and composition have been modied more by the amount and type of dietary fat than any other dietary component (Palmquist et al., 1993). Feeding canola in different forms such as a protected seed, crushed seed or as calcium salts of long chain fatty acids, have partly circumvented the adverse effects of fats on rumen fermentation and nutrient digestibility (Jiang et al., 1996; Aldrich et al., 1997). This has resulted in an increase in the C18:1 fatty acids and a decrease in the C16:0 fatty acids. Dairy cattle infused abomasally with 85350 g day1 of C18:1 produced between 85425 g day1 of C18:1 in the milk with a transfer coefcient from diet to milk of 0.54, while the contribution of C18:1 by the adipose was 185 g day1 (LaCount et al., 1994). In comparison, among goats in this study that were producing between 10 and 45 g day1 of C18:1 in the milk and fed between 2575 g day1 of C18:1, the calculated transfer coefcient was 0.24, while 21 g day1 was produced by the adipose tissue. The transfer coefcient is lower in the present study compared to that observed by (LaCount et al., 1994) because the C18:1 was exposed in the rumen and underwent some degree of biohydrogenation. The response in C18:2 and C18:3 fatty acids to feeding canola oil was not signicant although our data show that these fatty acids are present at higher levels in goat's milk than cow's milk (Jiang et al., 1996; Aldrich et al., 1997). Linoleic acid (C18:2) in goats milk (no oil) was 43.54 mg g1 fat whereas LaCount et al. (1994) reported values of 22.7 and 22.0 mg g1 fat respectively, in dairy cows fed control diets. However, milk containing linoleic acid is easily oxidized and antioxidants such as, tocopherols have been added to the milk to prevent oxidation (Palmquist et al., 1993). Addition of canola oil to the diets of goats did not increase the level of C18:2 fatty acid, however, the ratio of C18:2 to CLA was reduced from 4.5 in the no oil treatment to 1.3 when goats were fed 4% canola oil. Some studies indicate that CLA is an antioxidant (Decker, 1995) and may confer some natural protection against oxidation in the milk of goats fed canola oil, and the need for adding antioxidants could either be reduced or eliminated. Goats milk contains a higher proportion (57%) of short and medium chain fatty acids compared to cows

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Z. Mir et al. / Small Ruminant Research 33 (1999) 137143 seed on intake, nutrient digestibilities, milk production and milk fatty acids of Holstein cows. J. Anim. Sci. 75, 512521. Ashes, J.R., St Vincent Welch, P., Gulati, S.K., Scott, T.W., Brown, G.H., 1992. Manipulation of the fatty acid composition of milk by feeding protected canola seeds. J. Dairy Sci. 75, 1090 1096. AOAC (Association of Official Analytical Chemists), 1984. Official methods of analysis. 10th ed. AOAC, Washington, DC. Berner, L.A., 1993. Defining the role of milk fat in balanced diets. Adv. Food Nutr. Res. 37, 131257. Bonanome, A., Grundy, S.M., 1988. Effect of dietary stearic acid on plasma cholesterol and lipoprotein levels. New Eng. J. Med. 318, 12441248. Chin, S.F., Liu, W., Storkson, J.M., Ha, Y.L., Pariza, M.W., 1992. Dietary sources of conjugated dienoic isomers of linoleic acid, a newly recognized class of anticarcinogens. J. Food Comp. Analysis 5, 185197. Christensen, R.A., Drackley, J.K., Lacount, D.W., Clark, J.H., 1994. Infusion of four long-chain fatty acid mixtures into the abomasum of lactating dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci. 77, 10521069. Cook, M.R., Miller, C.C., Park, Y., Pariza, M., 1993. Immune modulation by altered nutrient metabolism - nutritional control of immune-induced growth depression. Poult. Sci. 72, 1301 1305. Corl, B.A., Chouinard, P.Y., Bauman, D.E., Dwyer, D.A., Griinari, J.M., Nurmela, K.V., 1998. Conjugated linoleic acid in milk fat of dairy cows originates in part by endogeneous synthesis from trans-11 octadenoic acid. J. Anim. Sci. 76(suppl. 1) p. 233 (Abstr). Decker, E.A., 1995. The role of phenolics, conjugated linoleic acid, carnosine, and pyrroloquinoline quinone as nonessential dietary antioxidants. Nutr. Rev. 53, 4958. Fogerty, A.C., Ford, G.L., Svoronos, D., 1988. Octadeca 9,11dienoic acid in food stuffs and in the lipids of human blood and breast milk. Nutr. Rep. Int. 38, 937944. Fujimoto, K., Kimoto, H., Shishikura, M., Yasushi, E., Ogimoto, K., 1993. Biohydrogenation of linoleic acid by anaerobic bacteria isolated from rumen. Biosci. Biotech. Biochem. 57(6), 10261027. Goonewardene, L.A., Whitmore, W., Jaeger, S., Borchert, T., Okine, E., Ashmawy, O., Emond, S., 1997. Effect of prebreeding maintenance diet on subsequent reproduction by artificial insemination in Alpine and Saanen goats. Theriogenology 48, 151159. Ha, Y., Grimm, N.K., Pariza, M.W., 1989. Newly recognized anticarcinogenic fatty acids: Identification and quantification in the natural and processed cheeses. J. Agric. Food Chem. 37, 7581. Hadjipanayiotou, M., Koumas, A., Hadjigavvriel, G., Antoniou, I., Photiou, A., Theodoridou, M., 1996. Feeding dairy ewes and goats and growing lambs and kids mixtures of protein supplements. Small Rumin. Res. 21, 203221. Ip, C., Chin, F., Scimeca, J.A., Pariza, M.W., 1991. Mammary cancer prevention by conjugated dienoic derivative of linoleic acid. Cancer Res. 51, 61186124. Jandal, J.M., 1996. Comparative aspects of goat and sheep milk. Small Rumin. Res. 22, 177185.

milk (50.6%) and the major difference is the higher C10:1 in goats' milk (Jandal, 1996). Furthermore, C16:0 accounts for 43% of the short and medium chain fatty acids C16:0 in goats' milk. Signicant decreases in the C16:0 fatty acids were reported from 299 mg g1 in the control to 216 mg g1 when dairy cows were fed diets containing crushed canola seed (Aldrich et al., 1997). Bonanome and Grundy (1988) have suggested that the sum of the C18:0 and C18:1 concentrations relative to the concentration of C16:0 may be a better indicator of the cholesterolemic tendency of a fat source than the saturated versus unsaturated fatty acid comparison. A higher ratio of C18:0 C18:1 to C16:0 is deemed to be nutritionally better than a lower ratio. Although our study does not report all of the C16 fatty acids separately, the ratio of the C18:0 C18:1 fatty acids to the C16 fatty acids increased from 0.41 in the control treatment to 0.74 in the 6.0% canola oil treatment, thereby enhancing the nutritionally benecial fatty acid prole in goat milk. 5. Conclusions The results from the present study indicate that it is possible to increase CLA content of goat milk by manipulation of dietary regimen such as supplementation with canola oil. Milk containing high level of CLA may also benet from CLA's antioxidant properties but this requires further studies. Changes in milk fat composition produced a value added product with more favorable fatty acid prole. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Canbra Foods, Lethbridge, Alta., for donating a part of the feed and the Central Milk Testing Laboratory of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development for analyzing the milk for fat, protein and lactose. Technical assistance of Mr. M. Rushfeldt for fatty acid analysis of milk samples is very much appreciated. References
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