Nutritional quality of milk from grazing mares: Effect of lactation stage

Abstract

Mare milk is a traditional food in many countries of Central Asia. It is valuable not only as a source of nutrients, but also for a series of attributed functional properties. Both raw and fermented mare milk (this last one named kumis or koumiss) have historically been used as medicine in patients with tuberculosis, chronic hepatitis, peptic ulcers, heartburn, etc. It has also been used as an alternative to human milk for infants due to the similarities in composition between mare and human milk. Moreover, mare milk presents a low allergenic response, being adequate also for infants and children with cow milk protein allergy, which is a common immune reaction among young age children. However, the beneficial functions attributed to mare milk are based on experience and traditions rather than on scientific evidence, which is truly scarce compared with other well-known functional foods. In fact, even the chemical composition of mare’s milk is not fully known today. A small number of studies, many of them dated back in the late 20th century, and other experimental and analytical limitations restrict the understanding of mare milk composition. Scarce information was also found as it respects to the impact of different production factors on mare milk composition, or regarding the use of grazing systems for mare milk production. However, considering its potentially beneficial attributes, a comprehensive characterization of mare milk composition would be of great interest.