Large-scale methane measurements on individual ruminants for genetic evaluations
Blog
STSM: Rumination time and methane emissions relationships in a multibreed dataset.
My name is Larissa Zetouni, and I’m a PhD student at Aarhus University, in Foulum, Denmark. My PhD project is entitled: Opportunities to select for low methane emitting dairy cattle. Read more➾
Blog post of STSM experience.
My name is Emanuela Parlato, I am an animal geneticist working with Italian water buffalo. My focus is on improving genetic selection of milk in the buffalo population. Read more➾
STSM - How I discovered the world of bioinformatics.
My name is Stefanie Engelke and my PhD project at Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) (Dummerstorf, Germany) is dealing with the level of methane output of dairy cows and the aim to validate an indirect marker to quantify methane emission based on milk fatty acids feeding different diets. Both, milk fatty acid composition and methane production depend on rumen metabolism, which is shaped by the microbial population. That was the starting point of my journey into a new field because I wanted to know more about the relationships, coherent pathways and involved teammates creating the differences. Read more➾
STSM - Interactions between Methanogens and Bacteria and their Effect on the Rumen Ecosystem Functionality.
Hi, I’m Stav Eyal, a Master student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. I study microbial interactions within digestive tract microbiomes, with an emphasis on methanogenic-bacterial interactions in the rumen environment. The METHAGENE COST Action STSM was a means for me to acquire cultivation techniques used by Dr. Samantha Noel for the study of the rumen co-inhabitant methanogens and bacteria. This is my blog about the three weeks’ STSM in Aarhus University, Foulum, Denmark, during October 2016. Read more➾
METHAGENE STSM Blog of Thomas Denninger at the CRA-W in Gembloux, Belgium
Hi, my name Thomas Denninger, I am a PhD student at the Agroscope Institute for Livestock Sciences and at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Currently, I am working with several methane measurement methods. During my first experiments we compared the results of the SF6 tracer technique with the GreenFeed data and the data obtained from the milk mid-infrared data in grazing dairy cattle. In my project we want to test rapid low-cost proxies or direct measurement methods for their accuracy and their calibration with in-depth measurements of enteric methane emission of low- and high emitting cows. The CRA-W ( Centre Wallon de Recherches Agronomique) in Gembloux has some experiences especially in the application of the SF6 tracer technique, the milk mid-infrared spectra and the GreenFeedsystem. For that reason there was the idea to collaborate with the CRA-W. Read more➾
STSM Filippo Biscarini
My name is Filippo Biscarini, and I currently hold a Principal Investigator position at the Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics of PTP Science Park, Italy. I mainly work on the statistical analysis of 'omics data from plant, animal and human scientific projects and experiments.
This two-week (18 September - 01 October 2016) “Methagene” COST STSM offered me the opportunity of collaborating with the group of Dr. Juan Pablo Sánchez and Dr. Raquel Quintanilla at the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics of IRTA (Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries) in Caldes de Montbui, Spain. Read more➾
STSM: Livia Kolesar
Hi, my name is Livia Kolesar and I am a young researcher from the Institute of Animal Physiology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Kosice, Slovakia. With the financial support of Methagene COST Action I was able to spend a month at INRA in France and join a very interesting and comprehensive project in Dr. Diego Morgavi’s lab. My host was Dr. Milka Popova. Aim of her project is to predict a genome-scale metabolic network for four ruminal methanogens. Part of this project is and RNA-Seq experiment during which differential gene expression profiles of these methanogens will be obtained. I joined the group for this part of the experiment. Read more➾
STSM for comparison of LMD & FTIR
My name is Sarah Mühlbach, I am a PhD student at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. For my PhD project I am measuring methane with a Laser Methane Detector (LMD) on research stations and commercial farms. Methane is measured with a lot of different techniques. From this the question arises whether these techniques create similar data and fit together. So there was the idea to go on a STSM at Aarhus University. From 06/06/2016 to 19/06/2016 I stayed at the research station in Foulum. There methane was measured with our LMD and the local Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) detector in automated milking systems (AMS). Read more➾
STSM: COST METHAGENE STSM Blog of Diana Sorg
I am a postdoctoral scientist with Prof. Hermann Swalve from the Animal Breeding group of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. We measure methane emissions from dairy cows with the mobile, non-invasive, hand-held Laser Methane Detector (LMD). It records the methane concentration in the air along the laser path between the cow’s mouth and the device. In our research project we want to identify possible methane phenotypes for the genetic selection of dairy cows that can be measured with the LMD under commercial conditions. Since the start of the project 1.5 years ago I have gathered some good experience with the LMD, but now I wanted to know more about how this technique relates to other methane measurements that can be applied in a dairy barn. Read more➾
STSM: Genomic evaluation of multi-country methane emissions in Dairy cattle
Hi, I’m Gareth Difford, a PhD student at Aarhus University in Denmark working with genetics and methane emissions in Dairy Cattle and this is my blog about my METHAGENE COST Action STSM to Wageningen, The Netherlands. My goal was to work on a multi-country dataset of methane emission records from multiple instruments/techniques on lactating Holstein cattle in multiple production systems, what could be more Methagene than that? Read more➾
STSM: GWAS 2.0: alternative approaches to association studies and indepth follow-up on detected signals.
I am a postdoctoral researcher at PTP Science Park (Lodi, Italy), and my focus is mainly on the study of signatures of selection and of genotype-phenotype signals of association in animal populations, especially livestock. With support of the COST ACTION “METHAGENE”, I had the opportunity to spend a period of 18 days at the University of Cardiff under the supervision of dr. Pablo Orozco-ter Wegel. Read more➾
STSM: Getting more acquainted with the GreenFeed system.
My name is Dorien Van Wesemael, I am a PhD student at the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Melle, Belgium. My PhD-project is entitled: “Nutritional strategies towards a sustainable dairy farm: focus on methane and nitrogen-efficiency”. The aim of the project is to test different (feeding) strategies to reduce the methane emissions of dairy cattle. Read more➾
STSM note Maguy EUGENE.
spent one intense week at Aberystwyth University in the UK in January 2015, discussing statistical theory and methods for meta-analysis. The visit was part of an on-going collaboration with my host, Dr. Rudinow Saetnan Eli on the meta-analysis of methane mitigation strategies. Read more➾
STSM: Prediction of methane emissions from milk MIR spectra.
My name is Florian Grandl and I work at Qualitas AG in Switzerland. Qualitas AG is the genetic evaluation centre of the Swiss dairy cattle breeding organisations and is involved in research and development in the field of functional and novel traits such as methane emission and feed efficiency in dairy cattle. We have established collaborations with CRA-W and ULg GxABT for assessing milk MIR spectral data as an indicator trait for methane emissions. Read more➾
STSM: Proxies for methane emissions to be used for genetic evaluations.
My name is Mevlüt Günal and I am a lecturer at Department of Animal Science-Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey. My research area covers rumen fermentation and its nutritional management. In two last years, my studies focus on the methods for measurement of methane emission. Read more➾
STSM: Detectability of differences in methane emission potential.
My name is Jana Pisarcikova, I am PhD student at Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Animal Physiology, Kosice in Slovakia. The topic of my thesis is “Manipulation of microbial digestion in rumen by phytogenic and no phytogenic additives” and my doctoral study is focussing on methane determining factors associated with variation in methane production, as well as on implementation of chromatographic methods for measurement of methane emission in relation to animal nutrition and digestion. Read more➾
STSM – Marcin Szalanski from Poland visited Nottingham University, UK.
My name is Marcin Szalanski. I am a master’s degree student at the Poznan University of Life Sciences (PULS) in Poznan, Poland. In the last year of my studies I became interested in the quantitative genetics approach as a mitigation strategy for ruminant enteric methane emissions. Currently, I am writing my master thesis titled “Variability of dairy cows’ methane emission from individual breath measurements”. It will be a part of a project realized in Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding at my home university. Read more➾
STSM: The use of indirect calorimetry for prediction of methane emissions from ruminants.
My name is Georg Terler and I am a researcher and PhD student at Austrian Research and Education Center (AREC) Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Austria. The field I am researching in is livestock production, reaching from the production of feed for animals till the quality of food of animal origin. In future one main topic of my work will be environmental aspects of cattle production with focus on methane emissions. Read more➾
STSM - Comparing the mobile Laser Methane Detector agree with the respiration chamber
In spring 2015, I, Diana Sorg, visited ETH Zurich in Switzerland for one week with an STSM.
Among other questions the genetic background of methane emissions is studied in order to be able to select cows that produce less methane for breeding. However, to collect enough data for a genetic-statistical analysis we need to evaluate many animals on commercial farms. For that, we use the non-invasive and portable Laser Methane Detector (LMD) which quantifies the methane concentration in air. Read more➾
What is French for statistics?
Eli Rudinow Saetnan spent one intense week at INRA Theix in Clermont-Ferrand, France in September 2014 discussing statistical theory and methods for meta-analysis. The visit kick-started an on-going collaboration with my host, Dr. Eugene Maguy on the meta-analysis of methane mitigation strategies. Read more➾
Short term scientific mission of Zala at Helmholtz Zentrum Munich
My name is Zala Prevorsek and I am a postdoctoral researcher at Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. I am currently working on a microbial project, which is focused on finding novel genes related to polymer degradation and methane production in complex microbial communities and their overlap with mRNA transcripts. Thanks to the support of METHAGENE COST Action, I went for an STSM to Schloter, Helmholtz Zentrum München German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Neuherberg (DE), from February 1st untill March 2nd 2015. Read more➾
 COST is supported by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 |
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