Impact of breeding for reduced methane emissions in New Zealand sheep on maternal and health traits.

Enteric methane emissions from ruminants account for ∼35% of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions. This poses a significant threat to the pastoral sector. Breeding has been shown to successfully lower methane emissions, and genomic prediction for lowered methane emissions has been introduced at the national level.

Can we have our steak and eat it: The impact of breeding for lowered environmental impact on yield and meat quality in sheep.

Global agreements in place to reduce methane emissions in livestock are a potential threat to food security. Successful but independent breeding strategies for improved production and lower methane are in place. The unanswered questions are whether these strategies can be combined and how they impact one another, physically and economically.

Dynamics of the ruminal microbial ecosystem, and inhibition of methanogenesis and propiogenesis in response to nitrate feeding to Holstein calves.

It is known that nitrate inhibits ruminal methanogenesis, mainly through competition with hydrogenotrophic methanogens for available hydrogen (H) and also through toxic effects on the methanogens. However, there is limited knowledge about its effects on the others members of ruminal microbiota and their metabolites. In this study, we investigated the effects of dietary nitrate inclusion on enteric methane (CH) emission, temporal changes in ruminal microbiota, and fermentation in Holstein calves.

A restriction enzyme reduced representation sequencing approach for low-cost, high-throughput metagenome profiling.

Microbial community profiles have been associated with a variety of traits, including methane emissions in livestock. These profiles can be difficult and expensive to obtain for thousands of samples (e.g.

A heritable subset of the core rumen microbiome dictates dairy cow productivity and emissions.

A 1000-cow study across four European countries was undertaken to understand to what extent ruminant microbiomes can be controlled by the host animal and to identify characteristics of the host rumen microbiome axis that determine productivity and methane emissions. A core rumen microbiome, phylogenetically linked and with a preserved hierarchical structure, was identified. A 39-member subset of the core formed hubs in co-occurrence networks linking microbiome structure to host genetics and phenotype (methane emissions, rumen and blood metabolites, and milk production efficiency).