Discrimination of goat, buffalo, and yak milk from different livestock, regions, and lactation using microelement contents

This study aims at investigating whether the livestock, lactation stage, or geographical origin of specialty milk in China could be classified by the elemental contents. Samples of goat, buffalo, and yak milk were collected from main production provinces in China and the contents of nine elements in milk from different livestock, regions, and lactation stages were determined. Statistical analysis indicated that the contents of Mn, Cu, As, Se, Cs, and Mo in mature milk were significantly different between the three livestock (p