Donkey milk can reduce stress and inflammatory responses in weaning piglets

According to researchers from this study, donkey milk is not marketed in the country. However, in countries such as Germany, France and Italy, it is used especially for premature babies. “Donkey milk is highly valued for its similarity to human milk,” the researchers pointed out.

• “Taking into account that a significant amount of research indicates that weaning is a very stressful time for piglets, we wanted to study the effect of donkey milk supplementation during this period.” In commercial farms weaning is usually carried out when piglets are just four weeks old, when in a natural scenario this happens with up to 12 weeks.

“The immune system represents a set of general and specific responses  that protect both animals and humans against potential pathogens and disease. Stress can make these mechanisms more vulnerable, and affect their adequate development,” the researchers state.

Researchers found that donkey milk reduced cortisol release in piglets subjected to stressful situations.

“We also found, that donkey milk can decrease the production of  1L1β genes, which is a pro-inflammatory cytokine. Exaggerated inflammatory responses can compromise various adaptive systems, causing a negative impact on animal development,” the researchers pointed out. “We were able to verify that donkey milk helped to mitigate the inflammatory response caused by weaning stress and the abrupt dietary change in piglets. This response was not observed in the group of piglets that were supplied a dietary treatment composed by skim bovine milk nor in the negative control group which did not receive any type of supplementation.”

The obtained results suggest that supplementation with donkey milk could be used as a nutritional strategy to Mitigate the negative impacts associated with weaning stress. Reducing the release of cortisol as well as the expression of 1L1 Beta, which can trigger inflammatory responses,” highlighted Sharacely de Souza Farias and Professor Zanella.

• “Therefore, donkey milk supplementation could also be considered for its use in premature babies, and as a food supplement for children and the elderly. However, more research should be conducted to assess this.”

The scientists that conducted this study hope that their findings and the proof of donkey milk’s health benefits, may help change the view of the Brazilian population and its politicians on donkeys. “We must urgently put an end to donkey slaughtering and trying to meet China’s demand for a product that we should not be exporting” they warned.

“Our research group is part of the National Task Force for Donkeys, which has been working to improve the wellbeing of these animals since 2015. Looking to re-signify the role of this species in the Northeast and in the whole Brazilian economy and culture,” concludes the professor. This research is described in the doctoral thesis of Sharacely de Souza Farias, whom was supervised by Zanella and co-supervised by Professor Chiara Albano de Araujo Oliveira, from UFBA.