鸽乳,又称嗉囊乳,是亲代鸟类从嗉囊反刍给雏鸟的一种分泌物。所有鸠鸽科鸟类都能够分泌这种物质,此外有此能力的还有红鹳和一些企鹅[1][2][3]

一只巴塞尔动物园的火烈鸟正在用鸽乳哺乳后代

与哺乳动物乳的区别

鸽乳与哺乳动物没有太大的相似之处。前者只是一种浅黄色的半固体状物质,而后者属于乳剂的范畴,[4] 鸽乳比牛乳人乳更富含蛋白质脂肪[5] 它还含有抗氧化剂和免疫增强因子。[6] 如哺乳动物的乳汁一样,鸽乳含IgA抗体,亦有一些种类的细菌。[7] 红鹳和鸽类无论雌雄都可以分泌鸽乳哺育后代,而企鹅中只有雄性才有此能力。[7] 在哺乳期同哺乳类一样由催乳激素刺激分泌。[7]

参考文献

  1. ^ Levi, Wendell. The Pigeon. Sumter, S.C.: Levi Publishing Co, Inc. 1977. ISBN 0-85390-013-2. 
  2. ^ Silver, Rae. Prolactin and Parenting in the Pigeon Family (PDF). The Journal of Experimental Zoology. 1984, 232 (3): 617–625 [2013-09-03]. PMID 6394702. doi:10.1002/jez.1402320330. (原始内容 (PDF)存档于2016-09-13). 
  3. ^ Eraud, C., Dorie, A., Jacquet, A. and Faivre, B. The crop milk: a potential new route for carotenoid-mediated parental effects. Journal of Avian Biology. 2008, 39 (2): 247–251. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04053.x. 
  4. ^ Meagan J. Gillespie, Volker R. Haring, Kenneth A. McColl, Paul Monaghan, John A. Donald, Kevin R. Nicholas, Robert J. Moore, Tamsyn M. Crowley. Histological and global gene expression analysis of the 'lactating' pigeon crop. BMC Genomics. 2011-09-19, 12: 452 [2018-04-02]. ISSN 1471-2164. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-452. 
  5. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R.; Dobkin, David S. and Wheye, Darryl (1988) Bird Milk页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆). stanford.edu
  6. ^ "Mysteries of pigeon milk explained"页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆) Retrieved September 22, 2011
  7. ^ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Meagan J. Gillespie, Dragana Stanley, Honglei Chen, John A. Donald, Kevin R. Nicholas, Robert J. Moore, Tamsyn M. Crowley. Functional Similarities between Pigeon ‘Milk’ and Mammalian Milk: Induction of Immune Gene Expression and Modification of the Microbiota. PLOS ONE. 2012-10-26, 7 (10): e48363 [2018-04-02]. ISSN 1932-6203. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048363. (原始内容存档于2018-06-15) (英语). 

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