Abstract: Milk is rich in all nutrients and is one of the most nutritionally complete foods. Milk has many nutritional and functional characteristics. It contains all the nutrients needed to keep newborns and infants alive and to improve the quality of the human diet. But the milks of non-bovine species are always ignored because of low yield and consequently low economic benefits. Therefore, with the aim of making people understand the importance of milks from minor dairy species and sparking interest in researching and applying non-bovine milks, this article introduces readers to the nutritional composition of the milks of cow, yak, horse, donkey, sheep and camel. Next, it presents a comparison of the general composition, fatty acid composition, bioactive substances and functional characteristics of milks from minor dairy animals and cows, leading to the conclusion that milks from minor dairy animals have both nutritional and health benefits and are promising for application.

Key words: animal milk; milks from minor dairy species; nutrition; composition; functional characteristics

摘要： 乳富含各类营养成分，是营养最完整的食物之一，具有很多营养及功能特性，包含维持新生儿和婴幼儿生命所需的所有营养，并能提高人类膳食质量。但是少数物种的动物乳因为产量较低而带来的低经济效益一直被忽略。为认识小品种乳的重要性，激发人们对小品种动物乳研究与应用的兴趣，本文介绍牛乳、牦牛乳、马乳、驴乳、羊乳、驼乳的营养组成，通过对小品种动物乳与牛乳中的常规成分、脂肪酸组成、活性物质及其功能特性进行比较分析，得出小品种动物乳是集营养与健康益处为一体的乳源，且具有较好的应用。

关键词: 动物乳；小品种乳；营养；组成；功能特性