Nutritional value of deer milk

Deer milk is a liquid food with a very high nutrition and energy content. The milk from reindeer and moose has a long history of human consumption, and the growth of red deer farming has the potential for development of a dairy industry. Deer milk has the highest total fat, protein, and casein protein content of all the animal species whose milk has been used for human nutrition. Deer milk is also a very rich source of nutritional minerals, and the calcium, phosphorus, and zinc content is much higher than that found in cow, sheep, and goat milk. Changes in milk composition over the lactation period are similar to those found in other ruminants. The high-protein content in deer milk compared to other sources of milk offers unique potential for generating higher amounts of protein hydrolysate upon digestion and an interesting high-buffering capacity that may have potential medicinal benefits. Several anecdotal reports suggest potential health effects for deer milk and their fermented products, but scientific evidence to support this is still under investigation