Milk fat mainly determined by genes

‘Most people think that fat composition is largely
determined by feed composition,’ tells Jeroen Heck of the Product Design and
Quality Management Group, who measured the fat composition of the milk. Marianne
Stoop of the Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre took the fatty acid composition
values found in the milk and looked at the pedigrees of the cows involved in the
research project. It became clear that there was a genetic component in the
composition: there were considerable differences in composition between the
different families.

Milk for specific
groups
Professor Johan van Arendonk, who is leading the Milk
Genomics research project, says that the knowledge that the fat composition of
the milk is genetically determined can be used in breeding. An important
advantage shown up by the research is that the DNA profile of the bull can be
used to predict the fat composition of the daughters’ milk. That means that milk
composition can be managed without having to carry out expensive analyses. The
dairy industry in turn can produce milk with different fat compositions for
specific groups.