Investigation on the changes in concentrations of vitamin D3 and E in Honamli and hair goat breed' colostrum in early postpartum.

Introduction: Colostrum contains higher amounts of vitamins D3 and E than mature milk. Due to the structural feature of the goat placenta, goat kids are born with very low reserves of fat-soluble vitamins and must rely on colostrum to acquire adequate plasma levels of vitamin D3 and vitamin E. In the present study, vitamin E was measured in the form of α-tocopherol which is the most dominant isoform present in milk samples. The main aim of the present study is to determine the colostrum vitamin D3 and E content in Honamli and hair goats in the early postpartum stage by high-performance liquid chromatography. Five Honamli and five hair goat colostrum samples were collected on the day of kidding and on the third and fifth days postpartum. On the sampled days, the colostrum of both goat breeds contains higher concentrations of vitamin D3 and α-tocopherol than that in mature milk (p< 0,05) and there was the existence of a breed difference in colostrum vitamin D3 and α-tocopherol concentrations (p< 0,05) was determined. Also, the effect of sampling day on colostrum vitamin D3 concentration in samples that were obtained between the first and third days was also significant (p< 0,05). Hair goat colostrum α-tocopherol concentrations were found to be higher than Honamli goats (p< 0,05). Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference between the sampling day and α-tocopherol content on days one and five (p < 0,05).