Associations between fecal microbiome and methane emissions in lactating dairy cows
- Bruno D'Ambrosio Zeballos (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
- Hilario Mantonavi (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
- Guillermo Martinez-Boggio (University of California, Davis)
- Francisco Peà±agaricano (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
- Alice Peres Assumpcao (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
- Derick Rosler (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
- Negin Sheybani (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
- Kent Weigel (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
- Heather White (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
Abstract
Methane is the second-most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas and an important contributor to global warming. Livestock, especially cattle, are widely recognized as contributing source of methane emissions. Beyond the environmental impact, methane represents a loss of dietary gross energy in ruminants, and thus, inefficient use of feed. In this study, we evaluated the associations between fecal microbiome and methane emission traits in lactating dairy cows as potential markers of methane emissions and feed efficiency. We measured methane production (MeP, in g/d) using GreenFeed, net energy for lactation (NEL), and body weight (BW) in 704 mid-lactation Holstein cows from 20 trials. We calculated residual methane intensity (RMI) as the regression of MeP on NEL and metabolic BW. We collected fecal samples via rectum on the last day of each trial, and the fecal microbiome was assessed using 16S rRNA sequencing. We identified Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, Actinobacteriota, Verrucomicrobiota, Spirochaetotaand Euryarchaeota as the most abundant phyla in the fecal microbiome. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to explore the relationships between each taxon and methane emission traits. We found several taxa, including Methanobrevibacter, Bifidobacterium, and Methanosphaera, positively correlated with MeP and RMI (p Prevotellaceae and Succinivibrionaceae exhibited negative correlations with MeP and RMI (p Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group and Oscillospiraceae UCG-005, and positively associated with MeP and RMI (p Eubacterium coprostanoligenes group and Monoglobus, and negatively associated with MeP and RMI (p < 0.05). These results indicate that cows with divergent methane emissions have different fecal microbial profiles. Overall, our study suggests that the fecal microbiome could be used as an easy-to-measure proxy trait for methane emissions in dairy cattle.
Keywords: 2026
How to Cite:
D'Ambrosio Zeballos, B., Mantonavi, H., Martinez-Boggio, G., Peà±agaricano, F., Peres Assumpcao, A., Rosler, D., Sheybani, N., Weigel, K. & White, H., (2026) “Associations between fecal microbiome and methane emissions in lactating dairy cows”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2280281. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23441
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