CAMEL MILK AS A SAFE SUBSTITUTE FOR MILK PROTEIN ALLERGY CAUSED BY CONVENTIONAL MILK FORMULA

There is no second opinion about the goodness of feeding breast milk to newborn babies because it is the perfect food, best suited to the digestive system of the newborn babies. However due to obvious reasons, when the babies are fed with milk substitutes, which are mainly based on cow milk or soybean preparations, they tend to suffer from allergy due to abnormal immunological response. The culprit is one of the ingredients in cow milk or soy protein. Almost all of the casein fractions and beta lactoglobulin are considered as the common allergens.

The allergic response varies from mild gastro-intestinal disturbance to very serious anaphylactic shock and sometimes death. This necessitates a lasting solution to find an alternative for the ingredients of the milk formula. The potential candidates are goat milk, ass milk, mare milk and camel milk. In Egypt, it is a common practice to feed the young one with camel milk after proper dilution. People in certain pockets of China and Mongolia do practice this habit to nourish the newborn.

The advantages of feeding the newborn with camel milk is further strengthened by the following facts.

1. Camel milk is free of beta-lactoglobulin as is human milk;

2. The ratio of whey protein to casein in camel milk is quite high, which results in soft curd and therefore, easier digestibility;

It is established that an immunological relationship exists between human milk, ass and mare milk caseins, while it is weak with goat and camel milk, and no immunological relationship was found between human, cow, and buffalo milk caseins. When antiserum to human milk whey proteins was applied in immuno-diffusion analysis, two precipitin lines were detected between human and ass milk proteins versus only one precipitin line with proteins of other species. It indicates that the antigenic similarities are stronger between ass and human milk whey proteins than to that of milk of other species. In other words, ass milk and to some extent, camel milk serve as better substitutes to human milk when compared to cow or buffalo milk.

Apart from specific nutrients found in higher concentrations in camel milk, it contains the highest level of Immunoglobulin G (IgG) (1.64 mg/ml) versus 0.67, 0.63, 0.70, 0.55, and 0.86 for cow, buffalo, goat, sheep and human milk, respectively. Camel immunoglobulins have molecular weights different from those of cow, buffalo and human milk. Camel milk IgG subclasses were purified and their molecular weights determined as 50, 46 and 43 kDa for IgG, IgG2 and IgG3 heavy chain respectively.

Camel milk has a considerably higher concentration of lysozyme than cow, buffalo, sheep, and goat milks, while lower than in human, ass, and mare’s milk. Different scientific workers estimated the concentration of lysozyme in camel milk at 228, 288 and 500µg of lysozyme per 100ml. The variations in the level of the values are attributed to the varying concentrations of the enzyme during the course of lactation. Camel milk has a considerably higher concentration of lysozyme than that of cow, buffalo, sheep, and goat milks, while lower than that in human, ass and mare’s milk.

The equivalent concentration of lysozyme in camel milk represents 11, 18, 10 and 8 times that of cow, buffalo, sheep and goat’s milk, respectively. Lysozyme concentrations in milk vary according to factors such as lactation period and health status of the animal. It increases in pre-colostrum, colostrums and during udder infection. In camel and cow milk, colostrum has higher concentrations of lyszoyme than normal milk.