Key Considerations for the Use of Seaweed to Reduce Enteric Methane Emissions From Cattle

Vijn, Sandra; Compart, Devan Paulus; Dutta, Nikki; Foukis, Athanasios; Hess, Matthias; Hristov, A.N.; Kalscheur, K. F.; Kebreab, E.; Nuzhdin, Sergey V.; Price, Nichole N.; Sun, Yan; Tricárico, J.M.; Turzillo, A. M.; Weisbjerg, M.R.; Yarish, Charles; Kurt, Timothy D.

doi:10.3389/fvets.2020.597430

Cited by 91 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 63 publications

(82 reference statements)

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“…The PRISMA checklist is provided in S1 File. After the initial search and screening different articles (experiments) were identified and papers without a full text (5) were excluded providing 56 papers that were assessed for eligibility. A total of 42 were excluded for the following reasons: the abstract was in English but the full article was in another language (3 experiments), the experiment was in vitro (8 experiments), the article was a review or book chapter (7 articles), the experiment had group feeding resulting in pseudo-replication (2 experiments), the experiment was off topic or had irrelevant outcomes (20 experiments), or the experiment lacked measures of variance (2 experiments).…”

Section: Inclusion Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analysis of effects of feeding seaweed on beef and dairy cattle performance and methane yield

Golder

Lean

Grant

et al. 2021

Preprint

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There has been considerable interest in the use of red seaweed, and in particular Asparagopsis taxiformis, to increase production of cattle and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We hypothesized that feeding seaweed or seaweed derived products would increase beef or dairy cattle performance as indicated by average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency measures, milk production, and milk constituents, and reduce methane emissions. We used meta-analytical methods to evaluate these hypotheses. A comprehensive search of Google Scholar, Pubmed and ISI Web of Science produced 14 experiments from which 23 comparisons of treatment effects could be evaluated. Red seaweed ( A. taxiformis ) and brown seaweed ( Ascophyllum nodosum) were the dominant seaweeds used. There were no effects of treatment on ADG or dry matter intake (DMI). There was an increase in efficiency for feed to gain by 0.41 ± 0.22 kg per kg [standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.70 ± 0.35; P = 0.001], but not for gain to feed (P = 0.215), although the direction of the change was for improved efficiency. The type of seaweed used was not a significant covariable for ADG and DMI. Milk production was increased with treatment on weighted mean difference (WMD; 1.35 ± 0.44 kg/d; P <0.001); however, the SMD of 0.45 was not significant (P = 0.111). Extremely limited data suggest the possibility of increased percentages of milk fat (P = 0.040) and milk protein (P = 0.001) on DerSimonian and Laird (D&L) WMD evaluation. The limited data available indicate dietary supplementation with seaweed produced a significant and substantial reduction in methane yield by 5.28 ± 3.5 g/kg DMI (P = 0.003) on D&L WMD evaluation and a D&L SMD of ?1.70 (P = 0.001); however, there was marked heterogeneity in the results ( I 2 > 80%). In one comparison, methane yield was reduced by 97%. We conclude that while there was evidence of potential for benefit from seaweed use to improve production and reduce methane yield more in vivo experiments are required to strengthen the evidence of effect and identify sources of heterogeneity in methane response, while practical applications and potential risks are evaluated for seaweed use.

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Section: Inclusion Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analysis of effects of feeding seaweed on beef and dairy cattle performance and methane yield

Golder

Lean

Grant

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These could focus on breeding animals with low-CH 4 emission, as already demonstrated with small ruminants (Goopy 2019;Rowe et al 2019). The use of additives, such as seaweed or other inhibitors (Vijn et al 2020), are also promising alternatives to reduce CH 4 emissions.…”

Section: Sources Of Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon and fossil resource depletion footprints of milk production from Canterbury dairy farms

2021

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Among the different sustainability metrics, the carbon footprint is the most commonly reported, but the depletion of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels, is also important. This study aimed to calculate the “cradle to farm-gate” carbon and fossil resource depletion footprint of milk production in Canterbury, New Zealand, comparing two different farm systems: one pasture-based with a relatively small amount of brought-in feed (Lincoln University Dairy Farm, LUDF) and an average Canterbury farm. The estimate of the carbon footprint of milk production was 0.68 and 0.80 kg CO2-eq/kg of fat and protein-corrected milk (FPCM) for the LUDF and Canterbury average, respectively. The main contributor to the carbon footprint for both farms was enteric fermentation, but differences were found mainly in the emissions from the supplementary feed. Conversely, the Canterbury average farm showed lower fossil resource depletion footprint (1.05 MJ/kg FPCM) when compared with the LUDF farm (1.13 MJ/kg FPCM). The differences were mainly related to fertiliser use. However, this difference is small if compared with farms overseas. The study shows that it is important to look at more than one environmental metric when proposing mitigation practices.

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“…To date, there have been several reviews that have provided qualitative overviews of the production responses and the extent of inhibition of methane emissions when seaweed was included in the diets of beef and dairy cattle [ 4 , 5 ]. However, there has been no comprehensive quantitative review of this subject.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analysis of effects of dietary seaweed on beef and dairy cattle performance and methane yield

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There has been considerable interest in the use of red seaweed, and in particular Asparagopsis taxiformis, to increase production of cattle and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We hypothesized that feeding seaweed or seaweed derived products would increase beef or dairy cattle performance as indicated by average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency measures, milk production, and milk constituents, and reduce methane emissions. We used meta-analytical methods to evaluate these hypotheses. A comprehensive search of Google Scholar, Pubmed and ISI Web of Science produced 14 experiments from which 23 comparisons of treatment effects could be evaluated. Red seaweed (Asparagopsis taxiformis) and brown seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) were the dominant seaweeds used. There were no effects of treatment on ADG or dry matter intake (DMI). While there was an increase in efficiency for feed to gain by 0.38 kg per kg [standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.56; P = 0.001] on DerSimonian and Laird (D&L) evaluation, neither outcome was significant using the more rigorous robust regression analysis (P >0.06). The type of seaweed used was not a significant covariable for ADG and DMI, but A. nodosum fed cattle had lesser feed to gains efficiency compared to those fed A. taxiformis. Milk production was increased with treatment on weighted mean difference (WMD; 1.35 ± 0.44 kg/d; P <0.001); however, the SMD of 0.45 was not significant (P = 0.111). Extremely limited data suggest the possibility of increased percentages of milk fat (P = 0.040) and milk protein (P = 0.001) on (D&L) WMD evaluation. The limited data available indicate dietary supplementation with seaweed produced a significant and substantial reduction in methane yield by 5.28 ± 3.5 g/kg DMI (P = 0.003) on D&L WMD evaluation and a D&L SMD of −1.70 (P = 0.001); however, there was marked heterogeneity in the results (I2 > 80%). In one comparison, methane yield was reduced by 97%. We conclude that while there was evidence of potential for benefit from seaweed use to improve production and reduce methane yield more in vivo experiments are required to strengthen the evidence of effect and identify sources of heterogeneity in methane response, while practical applications and potential risks are evaluated for seaweed use.

show abstract

Key Considerations for the Use of Seaweed to Reduce Enteric Methane Emissions From Cattle

Cited by 91 publications

References 63 publications

A meta-analysis of effects of feeding seaweed on beef and dairy cattle performance and methane yield

A meta-analysis of effects of feeding seaweed on beef and dairy cattle performance and methane yield

Carbon and fossil resource depletion footprints of milk production from Canterbury dairy farms

A meta-analysis of effects of dietary seaweed on beef and dairy cattle performance and methane yield

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