Practical monitoring of enteric methane production from individual ruminants

Samenvatting (Engelstalig)

Greenhouse gases emissions resulting from anthropogenic activities induce climate change and negatively impact the environment. Part of these emissions are due to the emission of enteric methane by ruminants (cow, sheep, goats…), which is produced during the digestion of feed. Reduction strategies such as breeding or modifications of the diet are possible. However, assessing their effect requires using devices that are capable of monitoring the methane production of individual animals in practice.
In this PhD thesis, two devices were experimented with to evaluate their ability to monitor the methane production of - respectively - sheep and cows. In complement, a model was formulated to cope with the type and scarcity of data that is commonly observed with these methods.
As a general conclusion to this research, it can be said that monitoring enteric methane production of individual ruminants under practical conditions is not yet performing as desired, and that many challenges still remains to be addressed.