Immunological and nutritional characterization of bovine colostrum: Effect of some variation factors

The importance of colostrum is twofold: it plays a role in the metabolism and nutrition of the newborn, in addition to its immediate supply of functional immunoglobulins. The current paper aims to study the main factors of variation in the nutritional and immunological bovine colostrum values at the Centre National de l'Insemination Artificielle et d'Amelioration Genetique (CNIAAG) of Baba Ali (Algiers, Algeria).

The study was conducted on 23 colostrum samples from cows of different breeds (Prim-Holstein pie rouge, Prim-Holstein pie noire and Fleckvieh), from calving until the 11^th day of milking. These females have calved during March 2020.

The results obtained indicate that the chemical composition of colostrum changes during milkings. The average rates of dry matter, protein and mineral matter, at the 1^st milking, respectively 20; 9.70 and 0.95 g/100 g tend to decrease to reach milk standards. Unlike lactose rate which gradually increase from milking to another. The average concentration of colostrum in immunoglobulins, evaluated at 34.3 g/L at birth, decreases during the milkings that follow. The fall is considerable (89%) from the 2^nd post-partum day.