Rumen metagenome as a genomic selection target to reduce enteric methane emissions

Abstract

Ruminant digestion emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas contributing to global warming and reducing feed efficiency. Reducing enteric methane emissions (EME) through breeding decisions is theoretically possible, yet measuring these emissions on commercial farms is currently challenging and costly. It is common for EME to be measured using different technologies, which may show weak correlations between them, complicating the combination of reference populations, especially between countries. Here, using the same sequencing strategy, we identified a group of ruminant metagenomic features (a core) present in at least 90% of 410 dairy cows in Australia and 434 in Spain. With subsets of this c..