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Genetic selection as effective methane mitigation tool in livestock: symposium on behalf of the PhD defence of Anouk van Breukelen
The symposium will take place on Tuesday 15 October and will give an overview of genetic selection strategies for reduced methane emission in cattle and sheep in different countries.
Methane emissions have been identified as major contributor to global warming. In livestock, various reduction strategies are heavily researched, such as management and feeding strategies or genetic selection. Genetic selection is a reliable, cost-effective, accumulative and permanent methane mitigation tool.
Several countries worldwide have started recording individual methane emission of cattle and small ruminants. In the Netherlands, methane concentration was measured on 100 farms for more than 10,000 Holstein cows. This unique data set built the basis for genetic analyses carried out in the PhD project of Anouk van Breukelen. The estimated genetic parameters are essential for implementing breeding strategies for lower methane emission in the Dutch breeding goal.
The symposium will start at 10:15 am and end at approximately 13:00 pm. Anouk's PhD defence will start at 15:30 pm and end at approximately 17:00 pm. A copy of the full programme (with an overview of all the speakers and presentations) is available here.