Effects of linseed and hemp seed supplementation on gene expression and milk quality in Alpine goats

In the last years great interest was given to the effect of nutrition on ruminant products, in particular on fatty acid (FA) composition, because of the effects of FA on human health. The inclusion of less than 4% oil in cattle and sheep diets increases the polyunsaturated fatty acid content of milk. Linseed fat supplementation improved goat milk performance, and enhanced the nutritional pro le of milk FAs, by increasing the vaccenic acid, CLA, omega-3 concentrations, and the indexes used as markers of dietary fat quality. Less is known on the effects of hemp seed supplementation on lactating goats. We report the results of linseed (L) and hemp (H) seed supplementation on milk traits and milk somatic cells expression pro le of 18 pluriparous goats. The goats were fed the same diet from parturition to 22 days in milk (DIM) and then equally divided into 3 groups: control diet group (C), and L and H seeds supplementation groups. A total of 150 ml of milk was collected for both milk fatty acid composition analysis and RNA extraction from somatic cells at 21 (T0) and at 150 (T1) DIM 2 hours after morning milking. Real-Time -PCR was performed on the cDNA retro-transcribed from 3 goats of each group both at T0 and T1 the RNA. In order to verify if the two lipid supplementations had different effects on mammary gland cells' activity the expression level of the following genes was analysed: ACACA, AGPAT6, CD36, DGAT1, FABP3, FASN, LPL, NR1H3, PLIN2, PLIN3, PNPLA2, PPARG, SCAP, SCD, and SREBF1. Signi cant differences were found both in milk FA composition and in the expression level of some of the analysed genes between T0 and T1 and among groups, con rming the important role of the different nutrients on animal metabolism and milk composition.