Integrated Human Practices

Dr. Fernando

During the beginning stages of our project we had a lot of questions about what path would be best to take. We had a meeting with Dr. Samodha Fernando; a leading expert in the role of the microbial food chain in methanogenesis. He knows the ins and outs of this industry and thankfully he was able to help us narrow down our project options.

Dr. Fernando gave us information that majorly changed the direction and implementation of our project. Our team knew that we wanted to incorporate e.coli with previously tested feed additives that have been proven to lower methane emissions. An original idea was to have e.coli produce sulfate within the microbiome of the cow, but Dr. Fernando warned us that using sulfate causes a buildup of hydrogen sulfide that kills the cow if it is given the doses needed to actually reduce methane emissions. Because of this information we avoided this option. Another option we wanted to pursue was using 3-nitrooxypropanol (3NOP), but Fernando warned us that Canada has already patented the use of 3-nitrooxypropanol for reducing methane in cattle. This was very good to know because if we would have pursued this route then our project would never have been marketable.

Dr. Fernando also gave us major pieces of information regarding the function of methanogens. This information was integrated back into our project, because now we know what pitfalls to avoid. One major thing that Dr. Fernando mentioned was that the methanogens main function was to recycle nadh. If the methanogens are killed then something else in the microbiome will have to perform this function. It could be more inefficient if another microbe takes this job. This was good to know because we would not want our project to cost farmers more money on feed. He also mentioned that instead of killing methanogens you can divert hydrogen away from them so that less methane is produced. Monitoring the acetate:propionate ratio in the rumen is a good way to know how much methane the cow is producing. Propionate is a competitor for hydrogen so it diverts hydrogen away from the methanogens. If the ratio of acetate is higher than propionate then that is a good indication that there is a lot of methane being produced. All of this information about methanogens was good to know because caution must be taken when changing the microbiome of an animal. We did not want to harm the cow microbiome in any way because unlike humans the microbes of cattle provide 70% of the metabolic energy that the ruminant gets.

On top of all of this information from Dr. Fernando that we have integrated into our project, he was also able to point us in the direction of other possible connections. He provided us with contacts to the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and the Nebraska Cattlemen, as well as science outreach events at the Lincoln Children’s Museum.

Animal Science Meeting