Graega project aims to identify milk produced by Greek goat breeds

For the first time in Greece, an effort is underway to certify the milk produced by Greek goat breeds, with the aim of producing correspondingly certified dairy products.

In Greece today there are five million goats, meaning Greece is first place among EU countries in terms of goat numbers. This was one of the reasons for the initiation of the cooperation of the Institute of Veterinary Research of Thessaloniki at Agricultural organization Dimitra with the Animal Science Laboratory of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and with local firms, within the framework of the Graega Cheese project, with the aim of decoding the genome of six Greek goat breeds and the certification of their milk and the derived quality dairy products.

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Blood and milk samples have already been collected from 327 animals on 19 farms and the samples will then be analyzed. Samples have been taken from the domestic goat, the black goat of Halkidiki as well as the goats of Skopelos, Pangaio, Serres Aridaia and also from the foreign species Anglonubia, Murtia and Damascus, so that the identification and differentiation of the samples can be done.

Ioannis Sakaridis, veterinarian, researcher at the Veterinary Research Institute of Thessaloniki at ELGO Dimitra noted that the aim is to determine a molecular method, using DNA techniques, to differentiate the milk from foreign goat breeds in relation to Greek goat breeds. The full genome of Greek breeds will be sequenced to determine which parts of the genome are related between the Greek breeds and how they are separated in relation to the foreign breeds of goats that exist in Greece. Thus, a traceability standard will emerge, through which the farms with Greek goat breeds will receive the relevant certification, which will follow the milk throughout the production line of any product.

In addition, the Graega Cheese project, named after GR, meaning Greece, and aega, meaning ‘goat’, will develop a chemical method to detect milk adulteration. In this way, exogenous sugars or proteins added to milk and water will be detected to detect any adulteration.