Successful METHAGENE Expert group meeting on proxies for methane

The Expert group meeting of the Methagene WG3 on proxies for methane emissions was successfully held in Catania (Italy) on April 23-24 2015. The two-day meeting took place in the premises of the University of Catania: attendees were nine experts from research & teaching institutes from all over Europe.

The main objectives of the meeting were to: 1) brainstorm on proxies for methane emissions in cattle/ruminants; 2) identify available information from literature on proxies for methane in ruminants; 3) review this information with regard to the relationship of methane with other production and functional traits that could contribute to reliable prediction of methane; and 4) discuss ideas for a review paper on the topic. During the meeting, 6 experts presented their experiences with proxies, and detailed discussions on these proxies for methane followed. Finally, the experts developed a concept for a possible review paper, sketched a tentative outline, and distributed tasks for the follow-up work to be completed by the end of the year. During the meeting, also the possibility of bringing together data on proxies for methane from different research projects was examined: this will be further discussed at next annual METHAGENE meeting in Wageningen, with a larger audience. The meeting was organized and coordinated by Dr. Enyew Negussie and Dr. Filippo Biscarini who are coordinators of the WG3 of the METHAGENE COST Action FA1302.

Presentations of the meeting can be found on this page (password-protected, for the password please contact Yvette.deHaas@wur.nl).