Impact of Royal Jelly Supplement on Ewe's Milk Fat Content and Fatty Acid Profile During the Early Stage of Lactation

Abstract

The aim was to study the possible effects of royal jelly (RJ) supplementation on milk fat content and fatty acids (FA) profile of ewes during the early stage of lactation. Randomly, thirty-six Ossimi ewes were divided into two groups (18 animals each). The first group was offered the basal diet which was considered as a control group, whereas the second group was fed the basal diet, in addition to a supplement of a single bolus of RJ (1000 mg/head) every two days as a treated group. Regardless the effect of time, the RJ-supplemented group recorded a non-significant increase in daily milk yield (1.22 kg) when compared with the control (1.08 kg) group (P<0.063). While, the RJ-supplemented ewes showed significantly increase in milk fat percentage (P<0.008) as compared to control group. Lactating ewes in the control group produced significantly higher contents of milk C14:0 (P<0.036) and C18:0 (P<0.027) saturated FA than that in the RJ group. However, the contents of milk C6:0 and C17:0 in the RJ group were significantly greater than that estimated in the control (P<0.050 and 0.041, respectively). Furthermore, Lactating ewes supplemented with RJ produced significantly higher contents of milk C16:1 (P<0.001), C18:1 (P<0.001) and C18:2 (P<0.046) unsaturated FA than the control group. It can be concluded that supplementation of ewes during the early stage of lactation with RJ can improve the nutritive value of milk fat, and appears to be an opportunity to modify the concentrations of certain milk fatty acids.