🐎 Equids

Equids are a family of odd-toed ungulates that includes horses, donkeys and zebras. People milk mares and jennies (female donkeys). Unlike cows, goats and sheep, equids are not ruminants: they have a single-chambered stomach, so dietary fats are not hydrogenated in a rumen, and their milk contains more polyunsaturated fatty acids.

According to the FAO, mare’s and donkey milk are very similar in composition: low in fat and protein, high in lactose (about 6–7%) and low in minerals. Caseins make up only about 40–45% of the protein, as in human milk. That is why the FAO calls equid milk one of the closest to human milk, although it falls short in energy because of its low fat.

With so little casein, such milk can hardly be made into cheese, but it is excellent for fermented milk drinks. Mare’s milk is the basis of koumiss, the traditional drink of the steppe peoples of Central Asia and Mongolia. Donkey milk is very expensive and is used in infant nutrition within individual studies, and in cosmetics.