Leptin’s Influence on the Quality of Bufallo Milk

Abstract

: Leptin is a protein hormone of 16 kDa, assayed in human, rat, mouse, bovine and porcine milk. The presence of leptin in milk raises questions concerning the ability of the mammary epithelial cells to transfer leptin from the blood and/or to synthesize it, before its secretion. In order to gain a better insight and understanding of leptin’s influence on milk’s quality and production traits at buffaloes, this paper reviews the available data on leptin’s roles at the species studied by a number of scientists and compare them to the results obtained at the buffalo specie. The study was based on a number of 30 samples of buffalo milk and buffalo blood from Salaj and Cluj County. After the DNA extraction from these samples we used the PCR method to identify the electrophoresis profile corresponding to fragments of leptin’s gene. After the PCR we managed to identify the favorable allele C and T of leptin gene. We also evaluated some parameters in the milk samples: fat percentage, protein percentage, lactose, SCC and pH. After comparing the values obtained we established that from our data leptin gene can be a factor that influences milk’s quality at buffaloes. The values gathered from buffaloes that presented CC genotype demonstrate the fact that this allele can be responsible for a lower quality of milk and the TT genotype is responsible for a better quality of milk.