The milk quality of the local caprine population

Abstract

This study has been undertaken to evaluate the quality of milk of the local goat population. It gives a brief yet dated description of the historical events that the Maltese islands passed through and how the dairy sector changed into what it is today. The results observed are expected to offer a bench mark for the quality and characteristics of the milk of goats as bred in the conditions that are customary in Malta at the present time. The study is planned to verify if the herd size affects the quality of the milk in any way and observe the difference in milking methods in order to see if quality is altered with respect to milk. The Milkoscan was used to analyse the fat, proteins, lactose, added water, density, pH, conductivity, freezing point, lactose and solids non-fat of the milk collected. The milk samples were collected from the pooling tanks of 68 individual farms on island of Malta only. The average values for the mentioned parameters were as follows: fat (5.23 ± 6.43%), proteins (2.94 ± 3.08%), lactose (4.44 ± 4.63%), added water (0.0 ± 0.9%), density (27.7± 29.8 kg/m3), pH (6.0 ± 6.3), conductivity (4.64 ± 4.69 mS/cm), freezing point (0.54 ± 0.55°C), salts (0.61± 0.65%) and solids non-fat (8.18± 8.51%). The data was analysed statistically via one-way anova and principal component analysis (PCA) in order to determine any differences in the quality of the milk by flock size. There was no statistical difference in milk quality by flock size. Milking techniques also did not show changes as there were very few farm samples collected that utilise parlour milking techniques Further to this analysis the records collected where then compared with similar foreign studies to discuss any differences. It was observed that with other studies the local Maltese goat is superior in the fat percentage however it shows inferiority in lactose and proteins percentage.