Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Pages: 262-274

Journal: ZUCHTUNGSKUNDE

Volume number: 94

Issue number: 4

ISSN: 0044-5401

eISSN: 1867-4518

Publisher: EUGEN ULMER GMBH CO

Abstract: 
Animal production has a minor effect on global greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, it is imperative to evaluate all possibilities in this regard, including breeding aspects. This manuscript focusses on breeding strategies and methane emissions in cattle. A logical and most efficient strategy to reduce methane emissions per kg milk addresses production efficiency in high yielding breeds, including shorter unproductive periods due to increased longevity and improved female fertility. Individual methane emissions in ruminants under field conditions can be recorded using laser methane detectors or via sniffer technology installed in automatic milking systems. Heritabilities for methane emissions based on dense longitudinal sniffer data ranged from 0.10 to 0.30. The combination of sniffer methane data with daily body weights and energy corrected milk enabled very accurate sire breeding values for feed intake. Milk spectral data analyses can be incorporated in the logistics of routine milk recording schemes. Derived fatty acid profiles are valuable indicators for the optimisation of feed efficiency through lower methane energy losses, and are early predictors for environmental stressors including climatic challenges. Most efficient and sustainable breeding strategies on methane emissions imply consideration of genetic and genomic characterisations of the rumen microbiome and ongoing host x microbiome interaction analyses. A final aspect addresses enhanced studies on genotype by environment interactions, considering environmental gas emissions recorded inside the cow barn. In such context, we identified robust bulls, displaying favourable and stable genomic breeding values for health traits along the continuous environmental scale for NH3, CH4, CO2 or N2O gas concentrations. Hence, improved breeding on robustness can be achieved based on conventional trait recording, but studying trait responses in dependency of environmental alterations.

Harvard Citation style: Koenig, S., Fehmer, L. and May, K. (2022) Breeding possibilities for reduced methane emissions, ZUCHTUNGSKUNDE, 94(4), pp. 262-274

APA Citation style: Koenig, S., Fehmer, L., & May, K. (2022). Breeding possibilities for reduced methane emissions. ZUCHTUNGSKUNDE. 94(4), 262-274.