The 'Terminological Dictionary of Animal Production and Animal Science' is an explanatory dictionary encompassing a comprehensive range of disciplines, including economics in animal production, ethology and animal welfare, bee genetics, cattle production, horse production, rabbit production, quantitative genetics and selection, dairy science, molecular genetics, poultry production, pig production, animal nutrition, small ruminant production, laboratory animal production, fish farming, general animal production and livestock facilities and equipment. The dictionary comprises 3,911 headwords, each followed by a definition or a cross-reference to the preferred term. In addition to core definitions, the full entries may include synonyms, abbreviations and English equivalents, while taxonomic terms are further supplemented with Latin nomenclature. The dictionary is intended for experts in the field of animal production and animal science, as well as for professionals in other fields who need scientifically rigorous terminological information.

Abstract Body axis patterning in vertebrates is controlled by HOX genes during embryogenesis, with their expression gradients defining spatial identity along the anterior–posterior axis. While the developmental roles of HOX genes in axial patterning are well established, it remains unclear to what extent embryonically defined anterior–posterior HOX expression patterns are retained as transcriptional signatures in adult tissues. Tail length in sheep provides a model for studying the phenotypic effects of HOX gene variants. We used Improved Jezersko–Solčava sheep, which segregate for both tail length and HOXB13 promoter variants, to examine genotype–phenotype associations. The HOXB13 genotype was the main determinant of adult tail length, acting primarily by modulating caudal vertebral number. RNA‑seq and qPCR analyses revealed a clear anterior–posterior HOXB13 expression gradient in adult tail skin and bones, consistent with retained positional patterning, with stronger distal expression in short‑tailed animals. These results provide in vivo evidence that spatially patterned HOX gene expression is retained in adulthood, consistent with residual transcriptional signatures of embryonic anterior–posterior identity.

After the domestication of goats around 10,000 years before the present (BP), humans transported goats far beyond the range of their wild ancestor, the bezoar goat. This brought domestic goats into contact with many wild goat species such as ibex and markhor, enabling introgression between domestic and wild goats. To investigate this, while shedding light on the taxonomic status of wild and domestic goats, we analysed genome-wide SNP data of 613 specimens from 14 taxonomic units, including Capra hircus, C. pyrenaica, C. ibex (from Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Slovenia), C. aegagrus aegagrus, C. a. cretica, C. h. dorcas, C. caucasica caucasica, C. c. severtzovi, C. c. cylindricornis, C. falconeri, C. sibirica sibirica, C. s. alaiana and C. nubiana, as well as Oreamnos americanus (mountain goat) as an outgroup. To trace gene flow between domestic and wild goats, we integrated genotype data of local goat breeds from the Alps as well as from countries such as Spain, Greece, Türkiye, Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Russia (Caucasus and Altai) and Pakistan. Our phylogenetic analyses displayed a clear separation between bezoar-type and ibex-type clades with wild goats from the Greek islands of Crete and Youra clustered within domestic goats, confirming their feral origin. Our analyses also revealed gene flow between the lineages of Caucasian tur and domestic goats that most likely occurred before or during early domestication. Within the clade of domestic goats, analyses inferred gene flow between African and Iberian goats. The detected events of introgression were consistent with previous reports and offered interesting insights into the historical relationships among domestic and wild goats.

We used genome-wide SNP data from 18 local cattle breeds from six countries of the Alpine region to characterize population structure and identify genomic regions underlying positive selection. The geographically close breeds Evolèner, Eringer, Valdostana Pezzata Nera, and Valdostana Castana were found to differ from all other Alpine breeds. In addition, three breeds, Simmental, and Original Braunvieh from Switzerland and Pinzgauer from Austria built three separate clusters. Of the 18 breeds studied, the intra-alpine Swiss breed Evolèner had the highest average inbreeding based on runs of homozygosity (FROH ) and the highest average genomic relationship within the breed. In contrast, Slovenian Cika cattle had the lowest average genomic inbreeding and the lowest average genomic relationship within the breed. We found selection signatures on chromosome 6 near known genes such as KIT and LCORL explaining variation in coat color and body size in cattle. The most prominent selection signatures were similar regardless of marker density and the breeds in the data set. In addition, using available high-density SNP data from 14 of the breeds we identified 47 genome regions as ROH islands. The proportion of homozygous animals was higher in all studied animals of local breeds than in Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle, the two most important commercial breeds in the Alpine region. We report ROH islands near genes related to thermoregulation, coat color, production, and stature. The results of this study serve as a basis for the search for causal variants underlying adaptation to the alpine environment and other specific characteristics selected during the evolution of local Alpine cattle breeds.

Ear length in sheep (Ovis aries) shows a wide range of natural variation, from the absence of an outer ear structure (anotia), to small outer ears (microtia), to regular ear length. Up until now, the underlying genetics of this phenotype has been studied in four sheep breeds from China, Jordan and Italy. These studies revealed a broad range of genes significantly associated with ear length, potentially indicating genetic heterogeneity across breeds or geographic regions. In the current study, we performed genome-wide SNP genotyping and haplotype-based mapping, in a population of 340 individuals, to identify loci influencing ear length variation in additional sheep breeds from Slovenia, Croatia, Cyprus and Greece. Additionally, two previously described candidate variants were also genotyped in our mapping population. The mapping model without candidate variant genotypes revealed only one genome-wide significant signal, which was located next to HMX1 on OAR6. This region was previously described as being associated with ear length variation in the Altay and Awassi sheep breeds. The mapping model including the candidate duplication genotype near HMX1 as a fixed effect explained the phenotypic variance on OAR6 and revealed an additional genome-wide significant locus on OAR13 associated with ear length. Our results, combined with published evidence, suggest that a duplication in the evolutionarily conserved region near HMX1 is the major regulator of ear length in sheep breeds descended from a larger region from Central Asia, to the Middle East, Cyprus, Greece and to the Alps. This distribution suggests an ancient origin of the derived allele.

The determination of breed composition or the population of origin has several practical applications, including the authentication of brand mono-breed products that have recently been developed in several livestock species, including cattle. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to verify the applicability of a random forest (RF) approach to distinguish between different dairy and beef cattle breeds based on a reduced panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A total of 1,370 animals from 17 cattle breeds were genotyped with a 50 K SNP microarray. After SNP pruning, 5,296 SNPs were retained for further analysis. Six methods were used for determining panels of the most informative SNPs: Wright's fixation index (FST), principal component analysis (PCA), random forest (RF) based on the Gini index (GI; two variants) and RF based on the mean decrease in accuracy (MDA; two variants). There was a similar distribution of selected SNPs per BTA, especially for the FST and PCA methods. Two panels of 96 SNPs obtained with two variants of RF-GI and RF-MDA contained the same SNPs but with a different ranking. The percentage of correct classification on the test set (10% of cases randomly selected from the whole dataset) was 100% for the Angus, Hereford, Holstein, Brown Swiss, and Jersey breeds. For the Simmental, Piedmontese, Romagnola, Shorthorn, Norwegian Red, Charolais, Cika, Tyrol Grey, Limousin, Austrian Pinzgau, Slovak Pinzgau, and Slovak Spotted breeds, it was 75.00 - 87.50%, 0.00 - 66.67%, 66.67 - 100.00%, 80.00 - 100.00%, 0.00 - 50.00%, 75.00 - 100.00%, 0.00 - 66.67%, 90.91 -100.00%, 91.67%, 81.82 -100.00%, 93.33 -100.00%, 55.56 -100.00%, respectively. The overall correct classification rate (for all breeds together) was 87.14%, 94.29%, 90.00% and 88.57% for RF-GI, RF-MDA, FST and PCA, respectively. Conse-quently, the most accurate method for distinguishing between cattle breeds was RF based on the MDA, although the differences amongst models were not large.

By their paternal transmission, Y-chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and male-mediated introgression. Previous studies identified biallelic single-nucleotide variants in the SRY, ZFY and DDX3Y genes, which in domestic goats identified four major Y-chromosomal haplotypes, Y1A, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, with a marked geographical partitioning. Here, we extracted goat Y-chromosomal variants from whole-genome sequences of 386 domestic goats (75 breeds) and seven wild goat species, which were generated by the VarGoats goat genome project. Phylogenetic analyses indicated domestic haplogroups corresponding to Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, respectively, whereas Y1A is split into Y1AA and Y1AB. All five haplogroups were detected in 26 ancient DNA samples from southeast Europe or Asia. Haplotypes from present-day bezoars are not shared with domestic goats and are attached to deep nodes of the trees and networks. Haplogroup distributions for 186 domestic breeds indicate ancient paternal population bottlenecks and expansions during migrations into northern Europe, eastern and southern Asia, and Africa south of the Sahara. In addition, sharing of haplogroups indicates male-mediated introgressions, most notably an early gene flow from Asian goats into Madagascar and the crossbreeding that in the 19th century resulted in the popular Boer and Anglo-Nubian breeds. More recent introgressions are those from European goats into the native Korean goat population and from Boer goat into Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe. This study illustrates the power of the Y-chromosomal variants for reconstructing the history of domestic species with a wide geographical range.

While mitogenome mutations leading to pathological manifestations are rare, more than 200 such mutations have been described in humans. In contrast, pathogenic mitogenome mutations are rare in domestic animals and have not been described at all in cattle. In the small local Slovenian cattle breed Cika, we identified (next-generation sequencing) two cows with the T10432C mitogenome mutation in the ND4L gene, which corresponds to the human T10663C mutation known to cause Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). Pedigree analysis revealed that the cows in which the mutation was identified belong to two different maternal lineages with 217 individual cows born between 1997 and 2020. The identified mutation and its maternal inheritance were confirmed by Sanger sequencing across multiple generations, whereas no single analysis revealed evidence of heteroplasmy. A closer clinical examination of one cow with the T10432C mutation revealed exophthalmos, whereas histopathological examination revealed retinal ablations, subretinal oedema, and haemorrhage. The results of these analyses confirm the presence of mitochondrial mutation T10432C with homoplasmic maternal inheritance as well as clinical and histopathological signs similar to LHON in humans. Live animals with the mutation could be used as a suitable animal model that can improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of LHON and other mitochondriopathies.

In this perspective analysis, we strive to answer the following question: how can we advance integrative biology research in the 21st century with lessons from animal science? At the University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Animal Science, we share here our three lessons learned in the two decades from 2002 to 2022 that we believe could inform integrative biology, systems science, and animal science scholarship in other countries and geographies. Cultivating multiomics knowledge through a conceptual lens of integrative biology is crucial for life sciences research that can stand the test of diverse biological, clinical, and ecological contexts. Moreover, in an era of the current COVID-19 pandemic, animal nutrition and animal science, and the study of their interactions with human health (and vice versa) through integrative biology approaches hold enormous prospects and significance for systems medicine and ecosystem health.

Abstract The contribution of domestic cattle in human societies is enormous, making cattle, along with other essential benefits, the economically most important domestic animal in the world today. To expand existing knowledge on cattle domestication and mitogenome diversity, we performed a comprehensive complete mitogenome analysis of the species (802 sequences, 114 breeds). A large sample was collected in South‐east Europe, an important agricultural gateway to Europe during Neolithization and a region rich in cattle biodiversity. We found 1725 polymorphic sites (810 singletons, 853 parsimony‐informative sites and 57 indels), 701 unique haplotypes, a haplotype diversity of 0.9995 and a nucleotide diversity of 0.0015. In addition to the dominant T3 and several rare haplogroups (Q, T5, T4, T2 and T1), we have identified maternal line in Austrian Murbodner cattle that possess surviving aurochs’ mitochondria haplotype P1 that diverged prior to the Neolithization process. This is convincing evidence for rare female‐mediated adaptive introgression of wild aurochs into domesticated cattle in Europe. We revalidated the existing haplogroup classification and provided Bayesian phylogenetic inference with a more precise estimated divergence time than previously available. Occasionally, classification based on partial mitogenomes was not reliable; for example, some individuals with haplogroups P and T5 were not recognized based on D‐loop information. Bayesian skyline plot estimates (median) show that the earliest population growth began before domestication in cattle with haplogroup T2, followed by Q (~10.0–9.5 kyBP), whereas cattle with T3 (~7.5 kyBP) and T1 (~3.0–2.5 kyBP) expanded later. Overall, our results support the existence of interactions between aurochs and cattle during domestication and dispersal of cattle in the past, contribute to the conservation of maternal cattle diversity and enable functional analyses of the surviving aurochs P1 mitogenome.

There is a growing concern about the loss of animal genetic resources. The aim of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity and potential peculiarity of the endangered Kosovar sheep breed Balusha. For this purpose, a dataset consisting of medium-density SNP chip genotypes (39,879 SNPs) from 45 Balusha sheep was generated and compared with SNP chip genotypes from 29 individuals of a second Kosovar breed, Bardhoka. Publicly available SNP genotypes from 39 individuals of the relatively closely located sheep breeds Istrian Pramenka and Ruda were additionally included in the analyses. Analysis of heterozygosity, allelic richness and effective population size was used to assess the genetic diversity. Inbreeding was evaluated using two different methods (FIS, FROH). The standardized FST (di) and cross-population extended haplotype homozygosity (XPEHH) methods were used to detect signatures of selection. We observed the lowest heterozygosity (HO = 0.351) and effective population size (Ne5 = 25, Ne50 = 228) for the Balusha breed. The mean allelic richness levels (1.780–1.876) across all analyzed breeds were similar and also comparable with those in worldwide breeds. FROH estimates (0.023–0.077) were highest for the Balusha population, although evidence of decreased inbreeding was observed in FIS results for the Balusha breed. Two Gene Ontology (GO) TERMs were strongly enriched for Balusha, and involved genes belonging to the melanogenesis and T cell receptor signaling pathways, respectively. This could result from selection for the special coat color pattern of Balusha (black head) and resistance to certain infectious diseases. The analyzed diversity parameters highlight the urgency to preserve the local Kosovar Balusha sheep as it is clearly distinguished from other sheep of Southeastern Europe, has the lowest diversity level and may harbor valuable genetic variants, e.g., for resistance to infectious diseases.

Background Local breeds retained unique genetic variability important for adaptive potential especially in light of challenges related to climate change. Our first objective was to perform, for the first time, a genome-wide diversity characterization using Illumina GoatSNP50 BeadChip of autochthonous Drežnica goat breed from Slovenia, and five and one local breeds from neighboring Austria and Italy, respectively. For optimal conservation and breeding programs of endangered local breeds, it is important to detect past admixture events and strive for preservation of purebred representatives of each breed with low or without admixture. In the second objective, we hence investigated the effect of inclusion or exclusion of outliers from datasets on genetic diversity and population structure parameters. Results Distinct genetic origin of the Drežnica goat was demonstrated as having closest nodes to Austrian and Italian breeds. A phylogenetic study of these breeds with other goat breeds having SNP data available in the DRYAD repository positioned them in the alpine, European and global context. Swiss breeds clustered with cosmopolitan alpine breeds and were closer to French and Spanish breeds. On the other hand, the Drežnica goat, Austrian and Italian breeds were closer to Turkish breeds. Datasets where outliers were excluded affected estimates of genetic diversity parameters within the breed and increased the pairwise genetic distances between most of the breeds. Alpine breeds, including Drežnica, Austrian and Italian goats analyzed here, still exhibit relatively high levels of genetic variability, homogeneous genetic structure and strong geographical partitioning. Conclusions Genetic diversity analyses revealed that the Slovenian Drežnica goat has a distinct genetic identity and is closely related to the neighboring Austrian and Italian alpine breeds. These results expand our knowledge on phylogeny of goat breeds from easternmost part of the European Alps. The here employed outlier test and datasets optimization approaches provided an objective and statistically powerful tool for removal of admixed outliers. Importance of this test in selecting the representatives of each breed is warranted to obtain more objective diversity parameters and phylogenetic analysis. Such parameters are often the basis of breeding and management programs and are therefore important for preserving genetic variability and uniqueness of local rare breeds.

The study aims to identify any changes in the communication channels used by Slovenian livestock farmers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the main (dis)advantages of relying on them. An online survey was completed by 502 Slovenian farmers of various farm enterprises in winter 2020/2021. Most respondents generally used telephone, e-mail, and the internet to obtain agricultural information before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, farmers increasingly relied on online conferences and social networking sites. At the same time, younger farmers and farmers with a higher education level used digital channels the most frequently, with men doing so more often than women. Digital channels were primarily used by cattle and horse farmers, while cattle farmers showed the greatest online conference participation. Respondents reported having more time to spend with their families and animals as an advantage and the lack of face-to-face interaction with other farmers and advisers as a disadvantage of such communication patterns. As the study reveals differences in the use of communication channels during the COVID-19 pandemic by various farmers, a new communication strategy is needed that involves the use of appropriate communication channels to provide farmers with agricultural information both during the COVID-19 situation and later.

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters of 26 individual and four composite type traits in first parity Cika cows. An analysis of variance was performed with the generalized linear model procedure of the SAS/STAT statistical package, where the fixed effects of year of recording, cow’s age at recording and days after calving as a linear regression were included in the model. The variance components for the direct additive genetic effect and the herd effect in all type traits were estimated using the REML method in the VCE-6 software package. The estimated heritabilities ranged from 0.42 to 0.67 for the measured body frame traits, from 0.36 to 0.80 for the scored autochthonous traits, from 0.11 to 0.61 for the scored body frame traits, and from 0.20 to 0.47 for the scored udder traits. The estimated heritabilities for the composite traits called “autochthonous characteristics”, “muscularity”, “body frame” and “udder” were 0.55, 0.19, 0.19, and 0.26, respectively. The estimated genetic correlations among the measured body frame traits were positive and high, while the majority of them among the scored body frame traits were low to moderate. The estimated proportions of variance explained by the herd effect for the composite traits “autochthonous characteristics,” “muscularity,” “body frame” and “udder” were 0.09, 0.28, 0.14, and 0.10, respectively. The estimated heritabilities for the type traits of first parity Cika cows were similar to those reported for other breeds where breeding values have been routinely predicted for a long time. All estimated genetic parameters are already used for breeding value prediction in the Cika cattle population.

The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of feeding system on the growth rate and carcass quality of crossbred Improved Jezersko-Solčava x Texel (JSRT) lambs and to evaluate the effect of sex on these traits. The trial was conducted in nature according to the traditional rearing systems. The trial included 44 crossbred lambs, which were born and reared until the slaughter in three different flocks. In the age of 10 days suckled lambs were offered with ad libitum corresponding diets according to the feeding system. All lambs were slaughtered in seven consecutive days by the same procedure. The effect of feeding system significantly affected daily gain from birth to slaughter, EUROP carcass conformation and shoulder width. Likewise, the effect of sex significantly affected daily gain from birth to slaughter and internal fatness of carcasses. According to carcass cuts the feeding system significantly affected only the proportion of neck and leg. Considering meat quality traits, feeding system had a significant effect on the pH 45 and CIE a* values. In this study, we could speculate that more than the feeding system the growth and the carcass traits as well as meat traits were affected by the amount of the supplement.

In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation. We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan sheep that are currently found near the major Neolithic point of entry into Europe, and combined these data with published genotypes from southwest-Asian, Mediterranean, central-European and north-European sheep and from Asian and European mouflons. We detected clines, ancestral components and admixture by using variants of common analysis tools: geography-informative supervised principal component analysis (PCA), breed-specific admixture analysis, across-breed $$f_{4}$$ profiles and phylogenetic analysis of regional pools of breeds. The regional Balkan sheep populations exhibit considerable genetic overlap, but are clearly distinct from the breeds in surrounding regions. The Asian mouflon did not influence the differentiation of the European domestic sheep and is only distantly related to present-day sheep, including those from Iran where the mouflons were sampled. We demonstrate the occurrence, from southeast to northwest Europe, of a continuously increasing ancestral component of up to 20% contributed by the European mouflon, which is assumed to descend from the original Neolithic domesticates. The overall patterns indicate that the Balkan region and Italy served as post-domestication migration hubs, from which wool sheep reached Spain and north Italy with subsequent migrations northwards. The documented dispersal of Tarentine wool sheep during the Roman period may have been part of this process. Our results also reproduce the documented 18th century admixture of Spanish Merino sheep into several central-European breeds. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the events that have created the present diversity pattern, which is relevant for the management of the genetic resources represented by the European sheep population.

The male-specific part of the Y-chromosome is in mammalian and many other species the longest haplotype that is inherited without recombination. By its paternal transmission it has a small effective population size in species with dominant males. In several species, Y-chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and introgression. Previous studies have identified in domestic goats four major Y-chromosomal haplotypes Y1A, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B with a marked geographic differentiation and several regional variants. In this study we used published whole-genome sequences of 70 male goats from 16 modern breeds, 11 ancient-DNA samples and 29 samples from seven wild goat species. We identified single-copy male-specific SNPs in four scaffolds, containing SRY, ZFY, DBY with SSX3Y and UTY, and USP9Y with UMN2001, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses indicated haplogroups corresponding to the haplotypes Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, respectively, but Y1A was split into Y1AA and Y1AB. All haplogroups were detected in ancient DNA samples from southeast Europe and, with the exception of Y1AB, in the bezoar goat, which is the wild ancestor of the domestic goats. Combining these data with those of previous studies and with genotypes obtained by Sanger sequencing or the KASP assay yielded haplogroup distributions for 132 domestic breeds or populations. The phylogeographic differentiation indicated paternal population bottlenecks on all three continents. This possibly occurred during the Neolithic introductions of domestic goats to those continents with a particularly strong influence in Europe along the Danubian route. This study illustrates the power of the Y-chromosomal haplotype for the reconstructing the history of mammalian species with a wide geographic range.

Goat’s daily diet is usually based on grazing, hay and/or feed supplements. Feed supplements are crucial in the diet of high productive goats to achieve their genetic potential and breeders must choose balanced feeding regime to produce large quantities of milk without affecting the technological quality of milk. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of two commercially available feed supplements on goat milk coagulation properties and rheological properties of yoghurts. Goats of the Slovenian Alpine breed (61) were fed with two feed supplements during the 3-year experiment. Feed supplement 1 (FS1) had higher proportions of barley and alfalfa, while feed supplement 2 (FS2) had added premix of minerals and vitamins and had higher proportions of wheat and sunflower meal. Con¬sequently, FS1 had more crude fibres, which is the most probable reason for approximately 15 % higher firmness, consistency and cohesiveness (P<0.05) of yoghurts in FS1 group, compared to the FS2 group. Moreover, the rennet coagulation time (r) was shorter (P<0.05) in the FS1 group, compared to the FS2 group. Curd firmness 30 min after enzyme addition (a30) was also higher in FS1 group although the results were not statistically significant. Taking together, our results indicate that goats fed with FS1 produced milk with better technological properties compared to those fed with FS2, despite the fact that there were no significant differences in chemical composition of milk from each group. We showed that careful selection of feed supplement’s constituents could improve technological properties of goat milk. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the mechanisms of the observed differences.

The aim of the study was to research milk yield, composition and hygienic quality of routinely produced milk from Lipizzan mares. It was the first known case of adapting mares of this breed to the routine machine milking procedure. Three Lipizzan mares included in the routine machine milking produced commercial quantities of mare’s milk. Milk from Lipizzan horse breed was for the first time obtained and analysed in such quantity. The mares were milked consecutively three times per day during five days in a week, and during weekends, they were joined with their foals. The average values were as follows: daily milk yield (MY) was 8.24 kg, fat content (FC) was 4.027 g/kg, protein content (PC) was 15.064 g/kg, lactose content (LC) was 63.218 g/kg, somatic cell count (SCC) was 6.556 x 10³/ml, total bacteria count (TBC) was 114.689 x 10³/ml, and average freezing point (FP) was -0.505 °C. Consecutive milking significantly influenced PC, LC, SCC, and TBC. FC tended to increase with days in milk, whereas PC, SCC, and TBC decreased during the lactation stage. Significant differences between mares were found in PC, LC, SSC and TBC. Interaction between consecutive milking and mare was significant only for FC. The study confirmed that warmblooded horse breed can be used for commercial milk production along with coldblooded breeds. Routine machine milk production with use of Lipizzan mares could add an economic value to the indigenous breed and serve as an additional reason for its preservation.Key words: milk composition; milk yield; days in milk; consecutive milking; hygienic quality KOLIČINA, SESTAVA IN HIGIENSKA KAKOVOST MLEKA PRIDOBLJENEGA Z RUTINSKO STROJNO MOLŽO LIPICANSKIH KOBILPovzetek: Pridobili in raziskali smo komercialno količino namolženega mleka kobil lipicanske pasme. Rutinska mehanska molža treh kobil je potekala na raziskovalni ustavnovi, registrirani za prirejo kobiljega mleka. Rezultati so pokazali, da je bila povprečna dnevna količina mleka (KM) 8,24 kg, mleko pa je v povprečju vsebovalo 4,027 g maščobe/kg, 15,064 g beljakovin/kg in 63,218 g laktoze/kg. Povprečno število somatskih celic v mleku je bilo 6,556 x 10³/ml, povprečno skupno število mikroorganizmov 114,689 x 10³/ml, povprečna zmrziščna točka (ZT) mleka pa -0,505 °C. Rezultati analize variance so pokazali, da se količina beljakovin in laktoze ter število somatskih celic in skupno število mikroorganizmov statistično značilno razlikujejo glede na zaporedno molžo ter med posameznimi kobilami ter da se količina beljakovin, število somatskih celic in skupno število mikroorganizmov v mleku zmanjšuje z napredovanjem laktacije, medtem ko se vsebnost maščob povečuje. Interakcija med zaporedno molžo in kobilo je statistično značilno vplivala le na vsebnost maščob. Gre za prvo raziskavo mleka kobil lipicanske pasme, kar omogoča nadaljno primerjavo med pasmami. Uporaba kobil te slovenske avtohtone pasme konj za komercialno rutinsko prirejo mleka bi predstavljala njeno dodatno gospodarsko vrednost in s tem razlog za ohranitev.Ključne besede: sestava mleka; količina mleka; stadij laktacije; zaporedna molža; higienska kakovost mleka