Abstract:

This article mainly focus on the functions of maternal milk factors like nutritional substances, growth factors,immune factors and other bioactive substances on newborn animals and elaborates the possible mechanisms of thesefunctions. These factors play important roles in nutrition, growth promotion, immune system and microflora regulation.We elucidate the critical functions of material milk as well as discuss the effect of deficiency of one or more specific activefactors on newborn animals by comparison between breasted and non-breasted newborn animals. Even though considerableknowledge is available about milk, more functions of milk and new substances remain to be discovered.

Key words: maternal milk, nutritional function, growth-promoting function, immune function, microflora regulation