Guinguina, A.; Hayes, M.; Gröndahl, F.; Krizsan, S.J. Potential of the Red Macroalga Bonnemaisonia hamifera in Reducing Methane Emissions from Ruminants. Animals2023, 13, 2925.
Guinguina, A.; Hayes, M.; Gröndahl, F.; Krizsan, S.J. Potential of the Red Macroalga Bonnemaisonia hamifera in Reducing Methane Emissions from Ruminants. Animals 2023, 13, 2925.
Guinguina, A.; Hayes, M.; Gröndahl, F.; Krizsan, S.J. Potential of the Red Macroalga Bonnemaisonia hamifera in Reducing Methane Emissions from Ruminants. Animals2023, 13, 2925.
Guinguina, A.; Hayes, M.; Gröndahl, F.; Krizsan, S.J. Potential of the Red Macroalga Bonnemaisonia hamifera in Reducing Methane Emissions from Ruminants. Animals 2023, 13, 2925.
Abstract
Researchers have been exploring seaweed to reduce methane (CH4) emissions from livestock. This study aimed to investigate the potential of a red alga, Bonnemaisonia hamifera, as an alternative to mitigate CH4 emissions. B. hamifera, harvested from the West coast of Sweden, was used in an in vitro experiment using a fully automated gas production system. The experiment was a ran-domized complete block design consisting of a 48-h incubation that included a control (grass si-lage) and B. hamifera inclusions at 2.5%, 5.0% and 7.5% of grass silage OM mixed with buffered rumen fluid. Predicted in vivo CH4 production and total gas production were estimated by ap-plying a set of models to the gas production data and in vitro fermentation characteristics were evaluated. The results demonstrated that the inclusion of B. hamifera reduced (P = 0.01) predicted in vivo CH4 and total gas production, and total gas production linearly decreased (P = 0.03) with higher inclusion of B. hamifera. The molar proportion of propionate increased (P = 0.03) while isovalerate decreased (P = 0.04) with inclusion of B. hamifera. There was a tendency for increased (0.06 ≤ P ≤ 0.10) total volatile fatty acid production, as well as lower proportions of butyrate, isobutyrate, and 2-methylbutyrate. Chemical analyses revealed that B. hamifera had moderate concentrations of polyphenols. The iodine content was low and there was no detectable bromo-form, suggesting quality advantages over Asparagopsis taxiformis. Additionally, B. hamifera exhib-ited antioxidant activity comparable to the positive control Resveratrol. The findings of this study indicated that B. hamifera harvested from temperate waters in Sweden possesses capacity to mitigate CH4 in vitro.
Keywords
dairy cow; greenhouse gas; macroalga; methane
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Animal Science, Veterinary Science and Zoology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
