Short communication: oral microbiome as a potential proxy for methane emissions in grazing tropical composite beef cattle

作者：Chian Teng Ong, Tony Cavallaro, Yuhao Li, Alan Boulton, Basil Firewski, Marloes Dekker Nitert, Kieren McCosker, Sam Clark, Scott Cullen, Melissah Dayman, Milou H Dekker, Paul Gangemi, Kerry Goodwin, Tim Grant, Rachelle Hergenhan, D. J. Johnston, Natalie Scott, Bradley Taylor, Cameron Whistler, Ben J Hayes, Marina Fortes, Elizabeth Ross · 发表于：Journal of Animal Science · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1093/jas/skag227 · 研究领域：Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology、Gut microbiota and health、Oral microbiology and periodontitis research

Enteric methane emissions from ruminant livestock contribute to global warming, creating an urgent need for effective mitigation strategies that do not compromise animal productivity and welfare. Methanogenic archaea within the rumen microbiome drive enteric methane emissions. However, large-scale rumen-fluid sampling in commercial production systems is impractical, due to its invasive nature and the associated logistical challenges. This study hypothesized that rumination facilitates the capture of rumen microbial signals within the oral cavity, therefore oral microbiome profiles can be a practical alternative for explaining variation in methane emissions commercial production systems. To test the hypothesis, we estimated the oral microbiability, defined as the proportion of phenotypic variance in methane emissions explained by oral microbiome variation. Samples were collected from 209 tropical composite beef cattle across two trials in Queensland, Australia. Oral microbiome samples were obtained from all animals, with paired rumen samples in one trial, and methane emissions were measured using either the sulfur hexafluoride tracer technique or the GreenFeed system. Microbial features were characterized using taxonomic and functional annotations, and microbiability was estimated using mixed linear models incorporating microbiome-based relationship matrices. The oral microbiability reported in this study ranged from 0.27 to 0.63 with standard errors 0.12 to 0.25. Functional m...