Effects of intact and extracted seaweed products on methane formation during rumen fermentation

Methane (CH4) emission from livestock contributes immensely to climate change accounting roughly 28% of global anthropogenic CH4 emission (Beauchemin et al. 2008). CH4 is one of the potent greenhouse gases (GHG) with 25 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide (CO2) (Eckard et al. 2010; Jeyanathan et al., 2014; Bai et al., 2016). Enteric CH4 production also results in significant energy loss to the animals which amounts to 2 to 12% of the gross energy intake (Martin et al. 2010; Benchaar and Greathead, 2011; Patra, 2012). Therefore, safe and effective enteric methane mitigation strategies has positive contribution to both the environment and animal productivity.