Abstract :
Gas chromatographic analysis was used for the investigation of temporal variations of
approximately 60 C4-C24 fatty acids (FA) in colostrum of individual ewes consuming
a winter diet within 26 h after lambing. Attention was focused on variations in individual
straight-chain saturated fatty acids (SSFA), branch-chain saturated fatty acids
(BSFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The
colostrum of individual ewes kept under identical living and feeding conditions displays
high variability mainly in the content of individual SSFA and MUFA. At most a 50–110%
increase in the content of 4:0, 6:0, 8:0, 10:0, 18:0 and trans-11 18:1, contrary to 17–91%
decrease in the content of 12:0, 14:0, and 16:0 in individual ewes were determined during
the first colostrum day. For some ewes, even reverse trends in temporal dependence
of individual FA content were observed. For the most abundant MUFA cis-9 18:1 reverse
trends in temporal dependences of -9 desaturase index and those of content during first
colostrum day were found.
