Review: Comparative methane production in mammalian herbivores

Clauss, Marcus; Dittmann, Marie-Theres; Vendl, Catharina; Hagen, Katharina B; Frei, Samuel; Ortmann, Sylvia; Müller, Dennis W H; Hammer, Sven; Munn, Adam J; Schwarm, Angela; Kreuzer, Michael

doi:10.1017/s1751731119003161

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Clauss, M., Dittmann, M.-T., Vendl, C., Hagen, K. B., Frei, S., Ortmann, S., Müller, D. W. H., Hammer, S., Munn, A. J., Schwarm, A., & Kreuzer, M. (2020). Review: Comparative methane production in mammalian herbivores. Animal: The International Journal of Animal Biosciences, 14(S1), s113–s123. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1751731119003161

Abstract

Methane (CH4) production is a ubiquitous, apparently unavoidable side effect of fermentative fibre digestion by symbiotic microbiota in mammalian herbivores. Here, a data compilation is presented of in vivo CH4 measurements in individuals of 37 mammalian herbivore species fed forage-only diets, from the literature and from hitherto unpublished measurements. In contrast to previous claims, absolute CH4 emissions scaled linearly to DM intake, and CH4 yields (per DM or gross energy intake) did not vary significantly with body mass. CH4 p