L'allevamento caprino in Valle Camonica: aspetti gestionali e caratteristiche del latte..

n the present work the main aspects of goat farming in Valle Camonica were evaluated and some compositional and hygienic parameters of goat raw milk were determined. From May to August 2003, 140 samples of milk were collected at 25 farms and analyzed for bacterial count, somatic cell count, pH, titratable acidity and fat, protein and lactose contents. Further investigations concerned fatty acid composition of milk fat, including CLA content. The bacteria count was 106,000 CFU/ml on average and the somatic cell count of milk from most of the farms was more than 1,000,000 units/ml. The mean contents of fat (3.38% w/v, SD 0.63), protein (3.08% w/v, SD 0.22) and lactose (4.60% w/v, SD 0.24) were comparable to the ones reported for goat milk produced in other mountain regions of Lombardy. The CLA content of milk fat was largely influenced by farming and feeding conditions. The CLA level resulted in the range 0.4-1.3 % total fatty acids and, as expected, the highest levels were recorded in milk from goat fed on pasture during summer. Under the same farming conditions, the higher was the altitude of pasture the higher was the CLA content of milk fat