Rumen microbiome of cows during lactation

There is considerable interest both from an environmental and economic perspective in reducing methane emissions from agriculture. In ruminants, methane (CH4) is produced by a complex and diverse community of microorganisms that is established in early life but can be influenced by a number of external factors such as feed composition. Although CH4 emissions were once thought to be reasonably constant once an animal reached maturity, recent studies have shown that CH4 yield is significantly increased in late lactation in dairy cows. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that increases in CH4 yield over the lactation cycle are related to changes in rumen microbial community structure. Nine cows from a typical dairy herd were monitored throughout their first lactation cycle.