Temporal variations in fatty acid composition of individual ewes during first colostrum day

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.