Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-26T20:03:24.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hygienic and health characteristics of donkey milk during a follow-up study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2010

Rachel Pilla ,
Valentina Daprà ,
Alfonso Zecconi  and
Renata Piccinini
Rachel Pilla
Affiliation:
Department of Veterinary Pathology, Hygiene and Public Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133Milano, Italy
Valentina Daprà
Affiliation:
Department of Veterinary Pathology, Hygiene and Public Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133Milano, Italy
Alfonso Zecconi
Affiliation:
Department of Veterinary Pathology, Hygiene and Public Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133Milano, Italy
Renata Piccinini*
Affiliation:
Department of Veterinary Pathology, Hygiene and Public Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133Milano, Italy
*
*For correspondence; e-mail: renata.piccinini@unimi.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For its characteristics, donkey milk has been proposed as an alternative to goat or artificial milk to feed allergic infants. Therefore, it is important to increase our knowledge on health and immunological characteristics of donkey milk. Ten donkeys, bred as companion animals, were enrolled in this study and sampled once a month, for eight months. Milk (10 ml) was collected from each half udder for somatic cell count (SCC), bacteriological analysis and total bacteria count (TBC). The major pathogens were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility, and Staphylococcus aureus isolates were further genotyped by nanoarray analysis. Whey lysozyme and NAGase (NAG) activities were also assessed. Overall, 101 half-udder milk samples were taken. They showed very low values of TBC (<250 cfu/ml) and SCC (<50 000 cells/ml) and a minor prevalence of pathogens: Staph. aureus was isolated only from 5 milk samples (3 animals), Streptococcus equi from 2 samples and Str. equisimilis from a single sample. All the isolates were sensitive to all antibiotic classes used in veterinary medicine. None of the Staph. aureus isolates were shown to harbour genes coding for any enterotoxin, toxic-shock syndrome toxin or antibiotic resistance. Lysozyme levels were always very high (4000–5000 U/ml), while NAG values were mostly low (<50 U/ml), out of the last part of lactation. The results of this study confirmed the low prevalence of intramammary infections in donkey and the absence of food-borne pathogens, suggesting that donkey milk could be a safe food, if the mammary gland is healthy and the animals are milked in proper hygienic conditions.

Keywords

Donkey milkmammary glandStaphylococcus aureuslysozymeNAGase
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Dairy Research , Volume 77 , Issue 4 , November 2010 , pp. 392 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Proprietors of Journal of Dairy Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bauer, AW, Kirby, WMM, Sherris, JC & Turk, M 1966 Antibiotic susceptibility testing by a standardized single disk method. American Journal of Clinical Pathology 45 493–496Google Scholar
Beghelli, D, Roscini, A, Valiani, A, Vincenzetti, S, Cavallucci, C & Polidori, P 2009 Somatic (CSS) and differential cell count (DCC) during a lactation period in ass milk. Italian Journal of Animal Science 8 691–693CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiavari, C, Coloretti, F, Nanni, M, Sorrentino, E & Grazia, L 2005 Use of donkey's milk for a fermented beverage with lactobacilli. Lait 85 481–490Google Scholar
Conte, F, Mazzullo, G, Lo Verde, V, Monsù, G, Scatassa, ML & Macrì, D 2003 [Mastitis in the ass: description of three cases in Sicily. Qualitative evaluations on the milk, cytology and sanitary consideration] Large Animal Review 5 63–68Google Scholar
Conte, F, Piccinini, R, Daprà, V & Gagliano, V 2006. [Evaluation of lysozyme in asses' milk] 60th National Conference S. I. S.Vet. (Terrasini (PA) 27–30/09/2006)Google Scholar
Conte, F & Passantino, A 2009 Guidelines for physical, chemical and hygienic quality and safety control of donkey's milk. Milchwissenschaft 64 85–88Google Scholar
Fournier, C, Kuhnert, P, Frey, J, Miserez, R, Kirchhofer, M, Kaufmann, T, Steiner, A & Graber, HU 2008 Bovine Staphylococcus aureus: association of virulence genes, genotypes and clinical outcome. Research in Veterinary Science 85 439–448CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iacono, G, Carroccio, A, Cavataio, F, Montalto, G, Soresi, M & Balsamo, V 1992 Use of ass milk in multiple food allergy. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 14 177–181Google ScholarPubMed
Monecke, S, Levbe, I & Enright, R 2003 Simple and robust array-based methods for the parallel detection of resistance genes of Staphylococcus aureus. Genome Letters 2 106–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monecke, S & Enright, R 2005 Rapid genotyping of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates using miniaturized oligonucleotide arrays. Clinical Microbiology of Infection 11 825–833Google Scholar
Monti, G, Bertino, E, Cristina, MM, Coscia, A, Cresi, F, Silvestro, L, Fabris, C, Fortunato, D, Gabriella, MG & Conti, A 2008 Efficacy of donkey's milk in treating highly problematic cow's milk allergic children: an in vivo and in vitro study. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology 19 85–88Google Scholar
Naccari, F, Foti, M, Giacopello, C, Mariavitale, P, Passantino, A, Russo, C & Conte, F 2009 Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus sp isolated from donkey's milk in Sicily: preliminary study. Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 32 150Google Scholar
NMC 1999 Laboratory Handbook on Bovine Mastitis. Madison WI, USA: National Mastitis Council IncGoogle Scholar
Piccinini, R, Binda, E, Belotti, M, Casirani, G & Zecconi, A 2005 Comparison of blood and milk non-specific immune parameters in heifers after calving in relation to udder health. Veterinary Research 36 747–757Google Scholar
Piccinini, R, Binda, E, Belotti, M, Daprà, V & Zecconi, A 2007 Evaluation of milk components during whole lactation in healthy quarters. Journal of Dairy Research 74 226–232CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polidori, P, Beghelli, D, Mariani, P, Vincenzetti, S 2009 Donkey milk production: state of the art. Italian Journal of Animal Science 8 677–683Google Scholar
Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 Guidance document on the implementation of certain provisions on the hygiene of food of animal origin. European Commission, Health & Consumer Protection Directorate General (Brussels, 21 December 2005)Google Scholar
Salimei, E, Fantuz, F, Coppola, R, Chiofalo, B, Polidori, P & Varisco, G 2004 Composition and characteristics of ass's milk. Animal Research 53 67–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tafaro, A, Magrone, T, Jirillo, F, Martemucci, G, D'Alessandro, AG, Amati, L & Jirillo, E 2007 Immunological properties of donkey's milk: Its potential use in the prevention of atherosclerosis. Current Pharmaceutical Design 13 3711–3717Google Scholar
Vincenzetti, S, Polidori, P, Mariani, P, Cammertoni, N, Fantuz, F & Vita, A 2008 Donkey's milk protein fractions characterization. Food Chemistry 106 640–649CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vita, D, Passalacqua, G, Di Pasquale, G, Caminiti, L, Crisafulli, G, Rulli, I & Pajno, GB 2007 Ass's milk in children with atopic dermatitis and cow's milk allergy: Crossover comparison with goat's milk. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology 18 594–598Google Scholar
Zecconi, A, Cesaris, L, Liandris, E, Daprà, V & Piccinini, R 2006 Role of several Staphylococcus aureus virulence factors on the inflammatory response in bovine mammary gland. Microbial Pathogens 40 177–183Google Scholar
Zhang, XY, Zhao, L, Jiang, L, Dong, ML & Ren, FZ 2008 The antimicrobial activity of donkey milk and its microflora changes during storage. Food Control 19 1191–1195Google Scholar