Abstract

The world, regarding COVID-19, recorded 693,666,294 cases and 6,908,586 deaths according to Worldometer. Due to the high incidence of obesity in Mexico (75%), Mexicans are more prone to COVID-19 due to obesity and being overweight leading to chronic degenerative diseases, with a total of 7,633,355 cases of COVID-19, and 334,366 deaths in a population of 131,562,772 inhabitants -2,541 deaths per 1 million- ranking 18^th in the world (as of August 2023), compared to the United States that came first with 107,797,340 cases, and 1,172,433 demises, 502 deaths per million, in a population of 333,805,269. Of the diseased, 76% showed chronic degenerative diseases that could have been prevented with foods rich in antioxidants. Sheep cheese in Mexico comes mainly from animals in full confinement fed a high degree of concentrates (45%) of their diet, but a small percentage also comes from grazing. We studied 10 farms from seven different Mexican states that used both feeding methods. The objective of the present work was to compare polyphenol quantities in both feeding systems. It’s known that cheese can provide antioxidants that could help to prevent diseases associated with cellular oxidation (favoring deterrence of COVID-19 infections for instance). Subsequently, the goal was to determine the degree of antioxidant protection in ewes cheese, based on the superoxide anion contents, or differences among cholesterol and alpha-tocopherol including samples from zero grazing. Polyphenols are expressed as a molar ratio between antioxidant compounds and an oxidation target, distinguishing products from grazing and zerograzing animals, divided into two different production systems: grazing (G), and confinement (FC). In the G treatment, cholesterol concentration lowered during the month of September (high-grazing season) and remained constant when ewes pastured. The concentration of alpha-tocopherol in milk increased from 270.09 to 279.04μg/100g for grazing animals (G) and, decreased from 215.25 to 205.45μg/100g when the grasses have begun to mature, increasing their fibrositis compared with ewes fed diets rich in concentrates, more than 45% of the daily intake (25.22mg/100g) with 12.8 to 11.7μg//100g. The level of alpha-tocopherol in milk was higher (p<0.05) in grazing milk 279.04μg/100g, compared to FC: 77.74μg/100g the highest recorded among both systems. The degree of antioxidant protection (DAP) increased significantly between treatments, with the highest value being observed in G (11.17) compared with the FC (3.42) group. It’s concluded that there is an effect of the feeding system that directly influences the degree of antioxidant protection in milk and therefore cheese. This effect is greater in milk that comes from grazing sheep, directly measured by the superoxide anion or indirectly by cholesterol versus alphatocopherol.

Keywords: Cardiovascular diseases; oxidative stress; COVID-19