Small Ruminant Research 103 (2012) 194–199

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Small Ruminant Research

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Short communication

Chemical composition and microbiological quality of ewe and goat

milk of native Greek breeds
E. Kondyli ∗ , C. Svarnas, J. Samelis, M.C. Katsiari
National Agricultural Research Foundation, Dairy Research Institute, Kastikas, 45221 Ioannina, Greece

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Chemical and microbiological characteristics of ewe milk of Boutsiko and Karamaniko
Received 2 May 2011 breeds and goat milk of the indigenous Greek breed (Capra prisca) were determined. No
Received in revised form significant differences were observed for fat, protein, lactose, casein and solids-non-fat con-
12 September 2011
tents of ewe milk of both breeds. The microbiological quality of ewe milk of both breeds was,
Accepted 20 September 2011
Available online 12 October 2011
generally, better than that of goat milk. The mean content of vitamin A was significantly
(P < 0.05) higher in ewe milk of Boutsiko than in Karamaniko breed, while no significant
Keywords:
differences were found for vitamins E and C contents between the two breeds of ewe milk.
Ewe–goat milk Goat milk had lower content of vitamins A and E than ewe milk of both breeds but the vita-
Vitamins min C content was about the same in ewe and goat milk. Oleic acid was the most abundant
Fatty acids fatty acid in ewe milk of both breeds while palmitic acid was the major fatty acid in goat
Microbiological quality milk. Butyric, stearic and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) contents of ewe milk of Boutsiko
breed were higher than those of Karamaniko breed. Goat milk had lower contents of CLA
and higher quantities of lauric and stearic acids than ewe milk of both breeds.
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Goat and sheep farming are of vital importance for the
national economy in many countries in the Mediterranean
and Middle East region, and particularly well organized in
France, Italy, Spain and Greece (Park et al., 2007). Among
the European countries, Greece is the first in goat popula-
tion (6,000,000 animals) and produces about 450,000 t of
goat milk per year (Anifantakis, 2001). Also the production
of ewe milk in Greece is about 680,000 t per year the second
larger production among the European countries (Pappas
and Kalantzopoulos, 2007). Sheep and goat milk, in Greece,
is mainly used in dairy industry for the production of Feta
cheese and other traditional PDO cheeses which must be
produced exclusively by sheep and goat milk from animals
of native breeds only (Anonymous, 1993). There are many
sheep breeds in Greece, most of which are indigenous but
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 2651094780; fax: +30 2651092523.
E-mail address: efikon.ig@nagref.gr (E. Kondyli).
in North Western Greece two native breeds are the most
important, the Boutsiko and Karamaniko breeds which are
endurable and adaptable to the environmental conditions,
small sized, frugal in eating and have the same yearly milk
production as other indigenous breeds (Voutsinas et al.,
1988). The major part (85%) of goat population, which is
durable and well adapted to the mountainous conditions
in Greece belongs to the native breed Capra prisca (Simos
et al., 1991; Kondyli et al., 2007).
There are research data concerning the effect of factors
such as genotype, reproduction, agro-climatic conditions,
feeding and milking on fat and protein concentration and
microbiological quality of milk. These parameters deter-
mine the technological and coagulation properties of milk
during cheese making, its nutritive quality and many of
its properties (Pulina et al., 2006; Morand-Fehr et al.,
2007). However in recent decades an increasingly impor-
tant role has been found on goat and sheep milk since
apart from the well known macro-nutrients (fat, protein,
minerals) contains also important substances such as vita-
mins and special fatty acids like conjugated linoleic acid

0921-4488/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.smallrumres.2011.09.043
 E. Kondyli et al. / Small Ruminant Research 103 (2012) 194–199 195

Table 1
Compositionc of ewe and goat milk of indigenous Greek breeds.

Milk composition Ewe milk of Boutsiko breed Ewe milk of Karamaniko breed Goat milk of indigenous breed
d
Spring Summer Spring Summer Spring Summer

pH 6.75b,1 6.79b,1 6.80b,1 6.82b,1 6.69a,1 6.65a,1

Fat (%) 6.76b,1 7.71b,2 6.82b,1 7.49b,2 4.30a,1 4.12a,1
Lactose (%) 4.90a,1 4.59a,2 4.68a,1 4.28a,2 4.53a,1 4.26a,2
Total nitrogen (%) 1.02b,1 1.02b,1 0.96b,1 0.98b,1 0.59a,1 0.54a,1
Protein (%) 6.48b,1 6.45b,1 6.11b,1 6.24b,1 3.71a,1 3.44a,1
Casein (%) 5.00b,1 5.00b,1 4.67b,1 4.81b,1 2.78a,1 2.58a,1
Solids-non-fat (%) 11.47b,1 11.41b,1 11.10b,1 11.13b,1 8.83a,1 8.45a,1
Total solids (%) 18.23b,1 19.12b,2 17.92b,1 18.62b,2 13.13a,1 12.57a,1
a,b
Mean values in the same row bearing different letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
1,2
Mean values in the same row for the same breed bearing different numbers are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
c
Values are average of 32 milk samples.
d
Spring (April, May), Summer (June, July).

(CLA) with nutraceutical action. Milk fat represents a good
dietary source of retinol (vitamin A) and ␣-tocopherol
(vitamin E), which are well known for their antioxidant
potential (Bergamo et al., 2003). In addition, fatty acids
(FA) in milk are getting more important because there is
an association between dietary levels of FA and health
problems. Anticarcinogenic and antiatherogenic proper-
ties have been attributed to CLA, while linolenic and other
unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acids are also of
interest because of their tendency to reduce cholesterol and
triglyceride levels in blood (O’Brien and O’Connor, 2003;
Collomb et al., 2008; De la Fuente et al., 2009).
There are some studies concerning the main con-
stituents and the microbiological quality of ewe and goat
milk of various breeds (Voutsinas et al., 1988, 1990;
Simos et al., 1991; Anifantakis, 1993; Morgan et al., 2003;
Muehlherr et al., 2003; Park et al., 2007) but no information
exists about the composition and microbiological quality
of sheep milk of Karamaniko breed. Moreover, there is no
information about the vitamin content of ewe milk of the
two breeds, and also little information about the FA profile
of Boutsiko ewe milk and goat milk of native breed (Kondyli
and Katsiari, 2002a,b) and no information exists about the
FA profile of Karamaniko ewe milk and CLA content of milk
of these breeds.
The aim of this study was to investigate the basic com-
2.2. Milk analyses
Fat, lactose and solids-non-fat (SNF) contents of milk were deter-
mined by using the Milkoscan, Model FT 6000 (Foss Electric, Denmark).
Total nitrogen, protein and casein were determined according to the
International Dairy Federation (IDF) standards No. 20A (1986) and No. 29
(1964) respectively. The vitamins, ␣-tocopherol (vitamin E) and retinol
(vitamin A) were determined according to Zahar and Smith (1990) with
slight modifications (Kondyli et al., 2007). For the determination of ascor-
bic acid (vitamin C) the method of Barrefors et al. (1995) was used
with some modifications (Kondyli et al., 2007). Fatty acid composition
(C4–C18:3) including conjugated linoleic acid (cis-9, trans-11 isomer) was
determined according to Badings and De Jong (1983) with some modifi-
cations (Kondyli and Katsiari, 2002a,b).
2.3. Microbiological analyses
Milk samples (10 ml) were aseptically pipetted into 250-ml Duran
flasks containing 90 ml of sterile 0.1% (w/v) buffered peptone water (BPW;
Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) and mixed by shaking for 30 s, and appro-
priate dilutions in 0.1% BPW were poured in or spread to duplicate agar
plates. Samples were analyzed for total mesophilic flora, mesophilic lactic
acid bacteria (LAB), mesophilic and thermophilic dairy cocci, enterococci,
catalase-positive cocci, pseudomonades, total enterobacteria, and yeasts.
The microbiological media and incubation conditions used, and the rapid
confirmatory (e.g., phase contrast microscopy, gram reaction, oxidase and
catalase) tests for the presumptive colonies of LAB, pseudomonades and
catalase-positive cocci enumerated on the selective agar media were con-
ducted by the method of Samelis et al. (2009).
2.4. Statistical analysis

position, vitamins A, E and C, fatty acids (including CLA) and
the microbiological quality of ewe and goat milk of native
Greek breeds.
The data concerning the ewe and goat milk of indigenous Greek
breeds, were subjected to two ways analysis of variance by using the
Minitab 15 statistical program (Minitab Inc., Pennsylvania, PA, USA) in
order to determine significant (P < 0.05) differences among results due to
the influence of breed/species, season and their interaction.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Milk samples
During spring and summer (April–July) 64 ewe bulk (evening and next
morning) milk samples from two farms (8 samples per month per farm)
which bred ewes exclusively of Boutsiko breed, 64 ewe milk samples from
two farms which bred ewes exclusively of Karamaniko breed and 64 milk
samples from two farms which bred goats exclusively of the native goat
breed (Capra prisca), a total of 192 samples were obtained. Ewe and goat
farms ranged in size from 200 to 300 animals and were located in the
semi mountainous (600–800 m altitude) region of Ioannina, North West-
ern Greece. The months of sample collection were selected due to the
fact that during this period sheep and goats were fed exclusively by graz-
ing in semi-mountainous and mountainous pastures, thus eliminating the
differences in animal feeding from farm to farm.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Basic composition of ewe and goat milk
The basic composition of ewe milk of Boutsiko and Kara-
maniko breeds and of goat milk of the native Greek breed
in spring (April, May) and summer (June, July) is shown in
Table 1. The pH of ewe milk of Boutsiko and Karamaniko
breeds was higher than that of goat milk. No significant
differences were found for fat, lactose, total nitrogen (TN),
protein, casein and solids-non-fat (SNF) content of ewe
milk between the two breeds, even if a little higher con-
tents of these constituents were found in Boutsiko than in
196 E. Kondyli et al. / Small Ruminant Research 103 (2012) 194–199

Table 2
Microbiological characteristicsc of ewe and goat milk of indigenous Greek breeds.

Microbiological Ewe milk of Boutsiko breed Ewe milk of Karamaniko breed Goat milk of indigenous breed
characteristics (log cfu/ml)
d
Spring Summer Spring Summer Spring Summer

Total counts 5.75a,1 5.23a,1 5.58a,1 5.41a,1 6.05b,1 6.14b,1

Mesophilic LAB 5.87a,1 5.04a,2 5.55a,1 5.06a,2 6.18a,1 5.78a,2
Mesophilic cocci 5.40a,1 4.96a,1 5.14a,1 5.15a,1 6.53b,1 5.98b,1
Thermophilic coccci 4.81 4.55 4.91 4.70 5.50 5.39
Enterococci 3.31 3.13 3.80 3.62 3.70 3.19
Catalase positive cocci 4.26 4.09 4.57 4.07 4.62 3.31
Pseudomonas 2.96a,1 2.64a,1 3.07a,1 3.09a,1 4.54b,1 3.97b,1
Enterobacteriacae 1.18a,1 1.92a,2 2.19b,1 2.95b,2 3.60c,1 3.72c,2
Yeasts–moulds 3.09 2.59 3.18 2.57 3.20 3.06
a,b
Mean values in the same row bearing different letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
1,2
Mean values in the same row for the same breed bearing different numbers are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
c
Values are average of 32 milk samples.
d
Spring (April, May), Summer (June, July).

Karamaniko breed milk. The season affected only the fat
and lactose content of ewe milk regardless the breed. The
levels of the basic constituents in milk of Boutsiko breed
in this study were almost the same with those found by
Voutsinas et al. (1988) and Kondyli and Katsiari (2002b)
for ewe milk of the same breed.
The fat, protein, TN, casein and SNF content of Boutsiko
and Karamaniko breed milk were significantly (P < 0.05)
higher than those found in goat milk of the native breed.
Higher contents of the above constituents in sheep milk
than in goat milk were also reported by Voutsinas et al.
(1988, 1990), Simos et al. (1991) and Park et al. (2007).
3.2. Microbiological quality of sheep and goat milk
The microbiological results of raw ewe and goat milk
samples are summarized in Table 2. In general, the micro-
bial quality of ewe milk was higher than that of goat milk
based on total viable counts (TVC) and the populations of
enterobacteria and psychrotrophic pseudomonad-like bac-
teria in the samples. Indeed, while TVC of ewe milk samples
generally were <6.0 log cfu/ml, nearly all goat milk samples
had TVC above this level. Also, populations of the above
gram-negative bacteria were 1–2 logs higher in goat than
in ewe milk samples.
Mesophilic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) enumerated on
MRS agar at 30 ◦ C under microaerophilic conditions, or
enumerated aerobically on M-17 agar at 22 ◦ C (including
mesophilic cocci), were prevalent in all three milk types.
Higher levels of mesophilic LAB were found in spring than
in summer in all types of milk. Thus, most of the natural
milk flora (TVC) consisted of mesophilic LAB. Goat milk
samples were found to contain higher populations of ther-
mophilic LAB – including streptococci – enumerated on
M-17 agar at 42 ◦ C, whereas enterococci, catalase-positive
cocci and yeasts were at similar population levels in all milk
types. Enterococci is a microbial group which originates
from the external contamination and therefore can be used
as a sanitary indicator (Garg and Mital, 1991). No significant
differences in microbial populations were noted between
the milk of the two sheep breeds; the only remarkable dif-
ference was that enterobacteria were generally greater in
milk of Karamaniko than Boutsiko breed and more numer-
ous in summer than in spring.
Generally, results in Table 2 show that levels of micro-
bial contamination of raw ewe Greek milk are satisfactory,
regardless of breed type, whereas, as expected, goat milk
is of lower microbiological quality than ewe milk. Low
microbiological quality of raw goat milk in Greece could
be related to factors such as stage of lactation, hygienic
conditions of milk production, handling and collection pro-
cedures (Anifantakis, 1993).
3.3. Vitamin contents of sheep and goat milk
The mean concentrations of retinol (vitamin A) and ␣-
tocopherol (vitamin E) in sheep and goat milk in spring
and summer are shown in Table 3. Vitamin A is an alcohol
and exists in several forms, however, only two isomers are
of real importance. The all-trans-retinol is the form with
the highest biological activity, while the 13-cis isomer has
less biological activity, about 75% of the all-trans-retinol.
Retinol in Boutsiko breed was significantly (P < 0.05) higher
than in Karamaniko breed. Haenlein (1996) reported lower

Table 3
Vitamin contentsc (␮g /ml) in ewe and goat milk of indigenous Greek breeds.

Vitamins Ewe milk of Boutsiko breed Ewe milk of Karamaniko breed Goat milk of indigenous breed
d
Spring Summer Spring Summer Spring Summer

Vitamin A 0.50c 0.53c 0.40b 0.38b 0.23a 0.28a

Vitamin E 2.14b 2.25b 1.97b 2.67b 1.59a 1.62a
Vitamin C 64.60 54.59 60.87 57.29 56.16 56.58
a,b
Mean values in the same row bearing different letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
c
Values are average of 32 milk samples.
d
Spring (April, May), Summer (June, July).
 E. Kondyli et al. / Small Ruminant Research 103 (2012) 194–199 197

Table 4
Fatty acid contentsc (mg/g milk fat) in ewe and goat milk of indigenous Greek breeds.

Fatty acid Ewe milk of Boutsiko breed Ewe milk of Karamaniko breed Goat milk of indigenous breed
d
Spring Summer Spring Summer Spring Summer

C4:0 16.2b,1 14.93b,1 11.16a,1 10.47a,1 12.12ab,1 13.91ab,1

C6:0 13.84 11.94 11.32 8.24 14.38 14.44
C8:0 14.65 14.58 13.37 14.71 15.64 13.07
C10:0 53.42 47.59 50.03 45.45 56.14 54.11
C12:0 32.88a,1 27.93a,1 31.07a,1 34.25a,1 39.25b,1 43.63b,1
C14:0 59.22b,1 60.66b,1 56.18ab,1 48.44ab,1 51.86a,1 51.13a,1
C14:1 14.33b,1 11.56 b,1 10.51ab,1 10.92ab,1 5.87a,1 6.70a,1
C16:0 162.25a,1 143.95a,2 158.19a,1 139.37a,2 168.96a,1 155.51a,2
C16:1 16.33b,1 13.74b,2 12.84ab,1 10.00ab,2 9.96a,1 9.38a,1
C18:0 65.02b,1 63.53b,1 55.04a,1 53.04a,1 74.12c,1 77.50c,1
C18:1 cis-9 169.89b,1 144.95b,2 177.98b,1 160.83b,2 119.20a,1 125.95a,1
C18:2 cis-9,12 14.70 17.09 13.19 16.44 17.44 16.00
C18:3 cis-9, 12,15 13.25 11.11 12.49 11.85 13.7 11.47
C18:2 cis-9, trans-11 (CLA) 22.95c,1 21.92c,1 17.37b,1 17.50b,1 15.09a,1 12.72a,1
Total 668.93a,1 605.48a,2 630.74a,1 581.51a,2 613.73a,1 605.52a,1
a,b
Mean values in the same row bearing different letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
1,2
Mean values in the same row for the same breed bearing different numbers are significantly (P < 0.05) different. CLA: conjugated linoleic acid.
c
Values are average of 32 milk samples.
d
Spring (April, May), Summer (June, July).

values of retinol concentration for ewe milk of other breeds
than those found in this study for ewe milk of Boutsiko
breed and similar to those found for ewe milk of Kara-
maniko breed. The mean content of vitamin A in ewe milk of
Boutsiko breed is almost the same to that found by Vassila
et al. (2002) and a little lower than that found by Zygoura
et al. (2004) for cow milk. Vitamin A contents of goat milk
of the indigenous Greek breed were significantly (P < 0.05)
lower than those of ewe breeds. Higher values of retinol
were found in this study than those reported by Kondyli
et al. (2007) for goat milk of the same breed. Probably the
differences in milk sampling and animal feeding (in this
study goats reared in pasture) cause different retinol con-
centrations in goat milk. Morand-Fehr et al. (2007) reported
higher levels of vitamins A and E in milk of goats reared
in pasture than indoors. Also Agabriel et al. (2007) found
significantly higher contents of vitamins A and E in cow
milk during grazing period (May–September) than those
measured during winter (February, March).
Vitamin E, also exists in many forms, such as ␣-, ␤-, ␥-,
␦- tocopherols and tocotrienols but usually ␣-tocopherol
is considered when the vitamin E content of foods is calcu-
lated since it has higher biological activity than the other
forms of vitamin E (Cremin and Power, 1985). No signifi-
cant differences were observed for ␣-tocopherol content in
all types of milk even if goat milk had lower contents of this
vitamin than ewe milk of both breeds. The values found in
this study for vitamin E are higher than those reported by
Papachristou et al. (2006) for cow milk. Also the mean con-
tent of ␣-tocopherol in goat milk found in this study was a
little higher than the value reported by Kondyli et al. (2007)
for the same type of milk.
Ascorbic acid is the most important of the various com-
pounds which possess vitamin C activity. The mean vitamin
C contents of all three milk are shown in Table 3. No sig-
nificant differences were observed for vitamin C contents
among the different milk types. Vitamin C contents in ewe
milk of both breeds, found in this study are higher than
those reported by Haenlein (1996) for ewe milk of other
breeds. Park et al. (2007) reported that, generally, ewe milk
contains higher amounts of vitamins than goat and cow
milk, however research data on vitamins in ewe milk are
scarce. The contents of ascorbic acid in goat milk found in
this study were higher than those reported by Haenlein
(1996) for goat and cow milk of other breeds and similar to
that found by Lavigne et al. (1989) and Kondyli et al. (2007).
Generally milk is not considered a source of vitamin C but
this study showed that ewe and goat milk of these breeds
contains enough, such that one portion (250 ml) of milk
(with these contents of vitamin C) could supply up to 40%
of the daily requirements of an adult (Lavigne et al., 1989;
Kondyli et al., 2007).
3.4. Fatty acids content of sheep and goat milk
Fatty acids (FA) profiles of Boutsiko and Karamaniko
breed milk in spring and summer are shown in Table 4. The
major FA in ewe milk of both breeds were oleic (C18:1) and
palmitic (C16:0). Other abundant FA was stearic (C18:0),
myristic (C14:0), capric (C10:0) and lauric (C12:0). These
FA account for about 80% of total FA in ewe milk of both
breeds. The contents of FA in ewe milk did not differ signif-
icantly between the two breeds except for butyric, stearic
acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which were higher
in Boutsiko than in Karamaniko breed. Significant (P < 0.05)
seasonal variations were observed for palmitic, palmitoleic
(C16:1), oleic acid and total FA for ewe milk of both breeds.
Less butyric acid content and more stearic, oleic, linoleic
and linolenic acids contents were found in Boutsiko breed
than those reported by Kondyli and Katsiari (2002a) for
ewe milk of the same breed. The CLA (cis-9, trans-11) is
the most biologically active isomer which accounts for over
80% of the isomers of CLA in milk fat. The CLA content
of Boutsiko breed in this study was similar to the report
of Ostrovsky et al. (2009) in milk of ewes from different
breeds, grazing fresh pasture and higher than that reported
198 E. Kondyli et al. / Small Ruminant Research 103 (2012) 194–199
by Collomb et al. (2008) for cow milk. The CLA content in
milk of pasture grazed ewes and cows was found higher
than that of ewes and cows fed with total mixed ratios
(Collomb et al., 2008; Ostrovsky et al., 2009; Stockdale et al.,
2003).
The most abundant FA in goat milk was palmitic, fol-
lowed by oleic, stearic, capric, lauric and myristic which
account for about 83.5% of total FA (Table 4). Goat milk
fat had a little higher quantities of caproic, capric and
palmitic acids and significantly (P < 0.05) higher quanti-
ties of lauric and stearic acids than ewe milk of both
breeds (Table 4). A little higher concentrations of FA were
found in this study for goat milk than those reported by
Kondyli and Katsiari (2002b) for goat milk of the same
breed. The mean CLA content of goat milk of the native
Greek breed was 15.09 and 12.72 mg/g of milk fat in
spring and summer, respectively, significantly (P < 0.05)
lower than the CLA content of ewe milk of Boutsiko and
Karamaniko breeds in this study. Also the CLA content of
goat milk, in this study, was lower than that reported by
Tyagi et al. (2009) for milk of crossbreed (Sannan × Beetal)
goats which were fed berseem fodder ad libitum. Park
et al. (2007) reported that total CLA content seems to
decrease in the following order ewe > cow > goat milk fat
but information about small ruminants is not much avail-
able.
4. Conclusion
No significant differences were observed for fat, pro-
tein, lactose, casein and solids-non-fat contents between
ewe milk of Boutsiko and Karamaniko breeds. The micro-
biological quality of ewe milk of both breeds was better
than that of goat milk, taking into account the total
viable counts and enterobacteriacae. Significantly (P < 0.05)
higher contents of vitamin A were found in Boutsiko ewe
milk than in Karamaniko and goat milk. Vitamin E con-
tents were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in ewe milk of
both breeds than in goat milk, while no significant differ-
ences were observed for vitamin C contents in all types
of milk. The major fatty acids were almost the same in
ewe milk of both breeds and in goat milk. Significant
(P < 0.05) seasonal differences were observed for palmitic,
palmitoleic, oleic and total fatty acids of ewe milk of
both breeds. Also significant (P < 0.05) differences between
breeds were observed for butyric, stearic acids and CLA
contents of ewe milk. Goat milk of the indigenous Greek
breed had lower CLA content than ewe milk of both
breeds.
Acknowledgment
This study was a part of the INTERREG IIIA, Greece–Italy,
2006–2008, project entitled “Evaluation of the animal pro-
duction of indigenous breeds, biochemical innovation of
products and conservation of biodiversity in the transfron-
tier region Greece–Italy” (code no: I2101030)
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