Advances in Mitigating Enteric Methane Emissions from Ruminant Livestock

Dear Colleagues,

The ruminant livestock sector must meet the increased global demand for animal protein while tackling the challenges of reducing its environmental impacts. Enteric methane has been identified as the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in global ruminant production, accounting for approximately 47% of total emissions. As a potent GHG, methane has a global warming potential about 27 times higher than that of CO₂. Moreover, enteric methane represents a dietary gross energy loss that, if mitigated, could be redirected for improving animal productivity. These factors emphasize the environmental and economic significance of developing innovative solutions for methane mitigation that can be implemented at the farm level.

This Special Issue aims to explore recent research progress for developing enteric methane mitigation strategies, including selective breeding and genetics, diet reformulation and feed management practices, feed additives, vaccines, and phage treatments. Emphasis will be placed on scalable solutions that can be practically implemented on farms and across different production systems. Moreover, the scope of this Special Issue would cover research that addresses the paucity of reliable methodologies for quantifying and validating the effectiveness of methane mitigation solutions at the farm level. There are concerns regarding the potential trade-offs associated with some methane mitigation strategies, such as changes in animal productivity and feed and nutrient emissions. Thus, this Special Issue will also consider papers that employ system-level methodologies such as life cycle analysis (LCA) to evaluate the holistic impacts and net effects of enteric methane mitigation on the total GHG emissions and emission intensity at the individual farm level or across geographical regions.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome for submission for publication in this Special Issue. The focus areas may encompass a range of innovative interventions for enteric methane mitigation, including in vitro and in vivo experiments, on-farm validation studies, mathematical modelling, and LCA.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Saheed A Salami
Dr. Abdulai Guinguina
Guest Editors

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• ruminant production
• dairy cows
• beef cattle
• sheep
• goat
• enteric methane
• rumen fermentation
• climate change
• life cycle analysis
• sustainable livestock