Comparative Metabolomic Analysis of Lactating Saanen Goats with Different Milk Production Levels

Abstract

Variation in milk yield among dairy goats maintained under identical feeding and management conditions suggests underlying differences in metabolic organization and nutrient utilization efficiency. This study aimed to evaluate the precision of nutritional status in lactating Saanen dairy goats classified by milk production level by integrating productive performance, energy metabolic biomarkers, hormonal profiling, and untargeted serum metabolomics. Twenty multiparous goats were categorized into high production (HP; n = 10) and low production (LP; n = 10) groups based on average daily milk yield. Circulating non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA), insulin, cortisol, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) were measured, and serum metabolomic profiling was performed using LC–HRMS followed by multivariate and pathway enrichment analyses. HP goats produced significantly more milk (3.93 ± 0.35 L/day) than LP goats (2.55 ± 0.19 L/day) and exhibited lower NEFA, BHBA, and cortisol concentrations, indicating greater metabolic efficiency and reduced stress-associated burden. Untargeted metabolomics identified 54 annotated metabolites, of which 25 were significantly altered between groups. Multivariate analysis demonstrated clear metabolic separation, and pathway enrichment highlighted tryptophan metabolism, one-carbon metabolism, riboflavin metabolism, and carbohydrate-related pathways as key differentiating routes. HP goats were characterized by higher uridine diphosphate glucose, riboflavin, S-adenosylmethionine, and betaine, whereas LP goats showed increased kynurenine, L-formylkynurenine, 1-methylhistidine, cortisone, and methylmalonic acid. Nine metabolites exhibited strong discriminative performance (AUC > 0.8), supporting their potential as biomarker candidates. These findings indicate that milk production divergence in Saanen dairy goats reflects coordinated differences in systemic metabolic remodeling, defining distinct precision nutritional status phenotypes associated with metabolic efficiency and stress–energy adaptation.

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