Modifying Zebu Milk with Focus on Human Health: Opportunities and Challenges

Dairy products have been an important source of energy and nutrients in the human diet for centuries. In addition to their well-established basic nutritional roles (e.g. rich source of calcium for bone building and high-quality protein for muscle growth), more recent studies have also reported health-promoting effects of certain fatty acids, proteins and peptides found in milk. The promising results observed in most studies led to several investigations focused on strategies to increase the milk contents of such bioactive compounds. Although much less is known about the milk composition and the potential of farm-level strategies for improving the nutritional quality and functional aspects of milk fat and milk protein in Zebu breeds when compared to taurine breeds under temperate conditions, some progress has been made as described herein. However, further studies in this field are warranted since milk production in many tropical regions around the globe is largely derived from Zebu breeds and their crosses.