Characterization of Fatty Acid Profile of Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) Milk During Different Lactation Periods

PÉREZ, M.E.; GONZÁLEZ CICCIA, P; VAN NIEUWENHOVE, C.; HERNÁNDEZ, M

Simposio; Sixth International Tapir Symposium IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG).; 2014

Milk represents a highly complex food produced by mammary gland to supply all the nutritional requirements of mammalian newborns, reason for which its composition varied among different animals.The knowledge of gross milk composition of wild animals is a key factor for the care and management, allowing the manipulation of different feedings strategies to ensure the survival of the newborn. In the present study we evaluated the fatty acid profile of colostrum, transitional and mature milk of lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris L., 1758). Samples were obtained from six healthy animals kept in captive or semicaptive conditions from Argentina and maintained at -20ªC until it analysis. Lipids were extracted by Folch procedure by using chloroform:methanol (2:1, v/v) solution, derivatized and injected into a gaseous chromatograph. All samples were processed by duplicate. Results showed that tapir milk fat is characterized by high saturated fatty acid (SFA) content that decreased as lactation progressed from 73.2 % to 55.6 %. Fatty acid profile revealed a unique pattern for this specie, showing great amounts of lauric (C12:0), miristic (C14:0) and pentadecanoic (C15:0) acids compared with other perissodactyla mammals. The overall unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) content increased over time from 26.77 % to 43.73 %. The most abundant fatty acids were oleic acid (C18:1n9) amongmonounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and linoleic (C18:2n6) acid among polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). Neither butyric (C4:0) acid nor fatty acids longer than C18 were determined. Traces of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) were measured, being the only transfatty acid detected. The SFA/UFA ratio was 2.73, 1.75 and 1.24 for colostrum, transitional and mature milk, respectively. The n3/n6 ratio was also higher in colostrum than other periods (0.88 vs. 0.27 and 0.36, respectively).