A preliminary study on the effects of red Bonnemaisonia hamifera seaweed on methane emissions from dairy cows

作者：Mirka Mølgaard Thorsteinsson, Anna A. Schönherz, Samantha Joan Noel, Zexi Cai, Z. Niu, Anne Louise Frydendahl Hellwing, Peter Lund, Martin Riis Weisbjerg, Mette Olaf Nielsen · 发表于：JDS Communications · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3168/jdsc.2024-0670 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Seaweed-derived Bioactive Compounds、Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology、Marine and coastal plant biology

The red seaweed Bonnemaisonia hamifera has shown potential as a CH 4 -mitigating feed additive in vitro, and hence, this pilot study aimed to investigate the potential of the seaweed when fed to dairy cows. The study was conducted as a 4 × 4 Latin square using 4 Danish Holstein cows with 4 periods of 7 d where the cows were placed in respiration chambers for the last 3 d. Milk yield and feed intake were recorded daily. The cows were fed a TMR without B. hamifera (control) or the same diet with the addition of, on a DM basis, 0.33% (low), 0.66% (medium), and 1% (high) B. hamifera . Increasing inclusion levels of B. hamifera linearly decreased CH 4 emissions with up to a 13.3% reduction in daily CH 4 production (g/d), 15.7% reduction in CH 4 yield (g/kg DMI), and 16.4% reduction in CH 4 intensity (g/kg ECM). In contrast, linear increases were observed in daily H 2 production (g/d), H 2 yield (g/kg DMI), and H 2 intensity (g/kg ECM). The exact nature of the antimethanogenic compounds in B. hamifera is unknown; however, the concentration of the potentially harmful compound, bromoform, was remarkably lower in B. hamifera compared with reported concentrations in the known antimethanogenic red seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis. In conclusion, B. hamifera showed CH 4 -mitigating properties in this preliminary study, but further in vivo studies are needed to fully evaluate the potential of the seaweed as an antimethanogenic feed additive.