STUDY OF YIELD AND COMPOSITION OF CAMEL MILK IN ALGERIA

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the yield and composition of raw camel milk throughout the lactation period. For this purpose seventeen multiparous she-camels, kept under grazing and supplement farming system in South East of Algeria were used in this study. A total of 153 milk samples were collected and analyzed through standard procedures to determine yield and physicochemical parameters of milk such as pH, acidity, density, fat, protein, lactose, ash and total solids. The results demonstrated that the overall means of daily milk yield and composition of pH, acidity, density, fat, protein, lactose, ash and total solids (TS) were 3.96 ± 1.24 L∙day-1, 6.55 ± 0.14, 0.17 ± 0.01 %, 1.032 ± 0.002 g∙cm-3, 3.72 ± 0.14%, 3.37 ± 0.18 %, 4.13 ± 0.29 %, 0.96 ± 0.22 % and 9.99 ± 1.82 %, respectively. Moreover, the milk yield was significantly (p 0.05). The results indicated that Algerian camel milk could provide a valuable nutritious food and energy source for population living in arid and semi arid zones and it was concluded that the stage of lactation had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on milk yield and most physicochemical parameters of raw camel milk.

Keywords

• acidity
• Algeria
• ash
• camel
• density
• fat
• lactose
• milk
• pH value
• protein