The Effect of Diets and Additives on Feed Partitioning and Methane Emissions by Ruminants

Abstract

Methane formation in the rumen represents a substantial loss of energy to the animal apart from being a major greenhouse gas emitted from agriculture. Methanogenesis is the main means of disposal of hydrogen during rumen fermentation. The formation of propionate represents an alternative route of hydrogen disposal but requires the availability of precursors. Theoretically, this can be achieved by dietary addition of propionate precursors. It has also been observed that diets influence the partitioning of products of rumen metabolism. Thus both propionate precursors and diets can be theoretically manipulated to moderate methane emission by ruminants with the net result of improved nutritive efficiency and environment conservation.