animal performance. Other studies have explored the use of sunflower, canola, rapeseed and soybean oils to reduce meth- ane emission. It has been reported that oils such as sunflower and canola, which are rich in long-chain fatty acids, reduce methane release in cattle which are mainly fed on roughage, and enhance the efficiency of gross energy by up to 22%. For rapeseed oil, it was determined that methane production de- creased by 7.3% in cattle fed with corn silage or grass silage as roughage. Feed consumption, organic matter digestibility and rumen fermentation were not affected and there was no interaction between the fat and roughage quality. In another study conducted with different physical forms of rapeseed (oil, meal, cake and seed), it was observed that rapeseed can reduce methane release without affecting fiber digestibility and milk production and that its physical form did not affect methane production. Soybean oil was shown to be toxic to fibrolytic microbes without decreasing fiber fermentation in the rumen of growing lambs. In a study conducted on goats, it was shown that methane production decreased with the addition of 5% of soybean oil and that milk yield was not af- fected, while milk fat was improved. Further improvements were achieved by adding soybean, coconut, and palm oil to the diet.
Conclusions 1. The fat supplement helps reduce methane production by reducing the number of protozoa in the rumen and lower- ing the carbohydrate content of the diet, which serves as the main substrate for methane production. As a result, animal performance is improved in terms of rumen fer- mentation kinetics, and dietary energy is better used for growth and milk production.
2. Fat supplements may contain a single source of fat or a combination of different fat sources. In either case, the supplement should be provided at the recommended lev- el or animal performance will be adversely affected.
3. There are, of course, other feeding strategies for reducing methane production, including the provision of adequate amounts of protein in the diet, the use of other supple- ments (e.g. enzymes, probiotics, etc.), and maintaining a proper forage-to-concentrate ratio. Such strategies should be combined with fat nutrition in attempts to alleviate methane-related problems.
References are available from the author on request.
In lactating cows, a 20% re- duction in meth- ane emissions represents the same amount of energy needed to synthesize 0.6 g/d of milk.
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