Goat milk and cows milk based formula comparison

Goat milk and cows milk based formula comparison

This summary is adapted from ‘Comparison of growth and nutritional status in infants receiving goat milk-based formula and cow milk-based formula: a randomized, double-blind study’ by Xu et al. 2015 There has been interest in the use of goat’s milk-based infant formula, due to potential advantages over cow’s milk-based formula and consumer demand. Goat’s milk contains less lactose than cow’s milk, making it potentially easier for infants with suspected lactose allergies to digest1. There have been efforts to compare the nutritional content between goat, cow and human milk to investigate its safety as an infant formula, along with some studies testing goat’s milk formula in other animals which have shown positive results. However, there have been relatively few trials in human infants. Two studies conducted have shown that growth of infants fed a goat’s milk-based infant formula was similar to that of infants fed with a whey-based cow’s milk infant formula2,3. These studies did not investigate nutritional markers, and were solely investigating growth therefore potentially missing important nutritional differences between these groups.

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This was a single site study conducted in Beijing, China. Infants were deemed eligible for inclusion if they were the mother’s first child, full term, and a normal birth weight. A total of 79 infants aged between 0 and 3 months were included and randomised to receive either goat’s milk-based formula or cow’s milk-based formula. 39 infants received the goat’s milk-based formula and 40 received the cow’s milk-based formula. Both formulas were manufactured and provided by Ausnutria Hyproca Dairy Group BV. Parents and guardians were asked to feed the infants their allocated formula from when they were enrolled until 6 months and the formula was provided for free as part of the trial. Weight, length and head circumference were measured at the time of enrolment, 3 months and 6 months. At these visits parents and guardians also took part in a structured interview to investigate whether their infant had experienced any health problems, including respiratory problems, gastrointestinal problems, reflux, infection, fever, urinary tract infection, and thrush. The number of unused sachets of formula were recorded during the visits to determine how much formula the infants were receiving. Nutritional blood markers such as calcium levels were measured as a reflection of the nutritional status of the infant. Adverse events (unexpected medical events) in this study included any illness or clinically significant laboratory test abnormality. 79.5% of infants allocated to goat’s milk-based formula consumed a sufficient amount of the study formula, and this was 85% in the cow’s milk-based formula group. This was not significantly different, indicating there was no difference in how likely parents were to stick to the feeding regime based on which formula they were giving their infants. Further, there were no differences in the timing at which solid foods were introduced between the two formula groups. Blood calcium levels were slightly lower in infants fed with the goat’s milk-based formula. This can likely be attributed to the higher level of calcium in the cow’s milk formula, and the value was still in the normal range so therefore does not indicate a deficiency. There were no differences in the other blood nutritional markers and they were in the normal ranges for both formula groups. There were no differences in the risk of a health condition or event between infants who received goat’s milk formula and cow’s milk formula at 6 months. There was no difference in weight, length, head circumference, and BMI between the two formula groups across the 6 months. From interviewing the parents, it was deemed that there were no group differences in bowel motion consistency, duration of crying and ease of settling, indicating the infants tolerated the goat’s milk-based formula well. This study has replicated the results of two previous studies confirming the use of goat’s milk infant formula results in normal growth. Growth, blood nutritional markers, and health status were comparable in infants who received goat’s milk-based infant formula to that of infants who received cow’s milk-based infant formula. Therefore, the safety and tolerability of goat’s milk-based infant formula did not appear to differ from cow’s milk-based formula. There are some potential risks which require further investigation, such as specific allergy to proteins in goat’s milk and the differences between allergenicity in goat’s milk and cow’s milk infant formulas. A bigger group of infants is needed to test this, as allergy is not common enough to test in a small population. This study was also limited by the recruitment of infants up to three months old, as infants may have received a cow’s milk formula or been breastfed before they were enrolled in the trial. A study provided goat’s milk formula from birth may provide different outcomes. Other potential advantages are worth further investigating, such as beneficial effects on the gut microbiota. The microbiome composition seen to develop in those fed goat’s milk formula appears to be more similar to that of breast-fed infants than those fed cow’s milk-based formula4. Overall, goat’s milk-based formulas appear to be a suitable alternative to cow’s milk-based infant formula.

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References:
  1. Haenlein GF. Goat milk in human nutrition. Small ruminant research. 2004 Feb 1;51(2):155-63.
  2. Zhou SJ, Sullivan T, Gibson RA, Lönnerdal B, Prosser CG, Lowry DJ, Makrides M. Nutritional adequacy of goat milk infant formulas for term infants: a double-blind randomised controlled trial. British journal of nutrition. 2014 May;111(9):1641-51.
  3. Grant C, Rotherham B, Sharpe S, Scragg R, Thompson J, Andrews J, Wall C, Murphy J, Lowry D. Randomized, double‐blind comparison of growth in infants receiving goat milk formula versus cow milk infant formula. Journal of paediatrics and child health. 2005 Nov;41(11):564-8.
  4. Tannock GW, Lawley B, Munro K, Gowri Pathmanathan S, Zhou SJ, Makrides M, Gibson RA, Sullivan T, Prosser CG, Lowry D, Hodgkinson AJ. Comparison of the compositions of the stool microbiotas of infants fed goat milk formula, cow milk-based formula, or breast milk. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2013 May 1;79(9):3040-8.
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