Researchers
Find 'Skim Milk Cows'
By
Andrea
Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
In
a few years, skim milk may come straight
from the cow, it was reported this week.
Skim milk is usually produced by taking
all of the fat out of regular
milk, but in 2001, researchers
found a cow that skipped that step. While
screening a herd of cows, they found one
with a natural gene mutation that makes
her produce lower-fat milk than a normal
cow.
Marge,
as researchers later named her, makes milk
that has 1 percent fat (as compared to 3.5
percent in whole milk) and is high in omega-3
fatty acids. And remarkably, Marge's low-fat
milk still has the same delicious taste
as conventionally produced low-fat milk,
according to the report in Chemistry &
Industry magazine.
The
low saturated
fat content of Marge's milk also
means that butter made from it is spreadable
right out of the fridge, while most butter
has to come to room temperature before it
can be spread on toast.
After
researchers found that Marge's daughters
also produced low-fat milk, they surmised
that the genetic trait was dominant and
planned to breed herds of skim milk-producing
cows. (Marge and her offspring live in New
Zealand.)
ViaLactia,
the company that owns Marge, expects the
first commercial herd
of cows supplying natural low-fat
milk and spreadable butter for the market
by 2011.
But
because cows are normally selected for breeding
because they give a high milk yield, this
new selection criteria could mean the skim
milk cows would produce less milk, said
Ed Komorowski, technical director at Dairy
UK and who is not affiliated with the research-so
more cows could be needed to produce the
same amount of milk.
And "normal" cows wouldn't disappear,
he told LiveScience, as their milk would
still be needed to make fattier products
such as cream.
The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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