Sustainable Solutions: Livestock Methane Emission Reduction with Lucas Lopes

In the future, cows may no longer emit methane gas. Myth or reality? In this episode of Sustainable Solutions: From Guelph to Gainesville, Shenara Ramadan, a master’s degree student in UF Agricultural and Natural Resources Communication, interviewed Lucas Lopes, a PhD Candidate in Animal Bioscience , who explained the genetic research conducted at the University of Guelph aimed at reducing methane emissions in livestock.

Transcript

Shenara: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Sustainable Solutions: from Guelph to Gainesville, a podcast brought to you by the Streaming Science project. Streaming Science is a student-driven program committed to connecting you with leading experts exploring how science shapes our world, and how we can build a more sustainable future together. Throughout this podcast series, we are not only delving into topics of sustainable agriculture in natural resources and science communication literacy, but we are also taking into national perspective as we connect with alumni and experts from the University of Guelph, Ontario Agricultural College in Ontario, Canada. I am Shenara Ramadan, a master's degree students in Agricultural and Natural Resource Communication at the University of Florida, and I will be your host for this episode. I spoke with Lucas Lopes to talk about his experience as a PhD candidate in the Center of Genetic Improvement of Livestock at the University of Guelph, and how genetics plays a role in influencing livestock methane emissions. During our conversation, we explored Lucas Lopes’ journey, his research to address livestock methane emissions and his insights into how collaboration is important to pursue a more sustainable future in agriculture. So, let's dive into our conversation with Lucas and explore more of his research at the University of Guelph: bridging the gap from Guelph to Gainesville. Welcome, Lucas, it's a pleasure to have you here. 

Lucas Lopes: Yeah, say just thank you for inviting me. Glad to be here and happy to be part of this.

Shenara: Great, great. So as an international student and researcher, can you share some insights into your life and experiences while pursuing your PhD in animal bioscience and then University of Guelph? 

Lucas Lopes: Yeah, it's been a long journey, I think. But I think it mostly, if I can summarize it, it's basically you know, getting one degree after the other. So, I started with my animal science degree back in Brazil, and then my master's in animal breeding and genetics in Brazil as well, at University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo State University, I'm sorry. And then I came here to Guelph to be part of this project a nd to start my PhD with Dr. Christine Baes, also a PhD in animal genetics, a great experience to have a degree here and international degree. I say that to everybody that can or that wants to really go after it, because it's really a unique experience to go abroad, especially when you go to other countries and you meet different people and new cultures, and you learn so much, and you grow so much throughout the process. And I think that's what happened to me.

Shenara: And it's very curious hearing this podcast episode, because both of us are Brazilians. So I'm here in the University of Florida, I studied my masters and you in Canada, so it was a great time, because it's not easy to find, like Brazilians over different countries. And we have the experience to conduct a podcast interview together. So it is great to have you here. 

Lucas Lopes: Yeah, that's, that's really nice from you. There's a couple of universities, especially for animal science and animal breeding, there seems to be more and more Brazilians, every time we meet.

Shenara: It's true. And I think that it's very important to have different cultures together. Because here in my department, here in Gainesville, I've been able to meet people from Africa, from Asia, from many different places. So it's been great even to conduct research. We can grow a lot despite our careers as well. And talking about career a little bit, can you explain to us how genetics plays a role in influencing livestock methane emissions? And what potential breakthroughs or solutions have you discovered in your research?

Lucas Lopes: Genetics are really important for animal livestock, or livestock in general, because those are all animals. But it's a very important part of it. Because to make it really simple here, and really being simplistic in this approach, basically everything an animal produces or anything that you can see, it's the result of the combination of their genetics and their environment. So, for example, I work with dairy cattle, and I worked with beef cattle before and with poultry before. So for dairy animals, their milk production, right like the amount of milk they produce is the result of the combination of their genetics, the potential they have genetically speaking, and the environment you provide them: all the nutrition, all the housing that you have for them and all the, you know, the comfort that they have at the barn, and so on. So when we think about methane emissions, it's early stages of it globally speaking, but what we're finding is that there is a portion of that, that emission those emissions that are regulated or controlled by genetics. So in my research, for example, we had estimated a heritability, which is how heritable that the methane emissions from the animals are, which means if I measure a cow now, and her daughter, or her son, how much of that methane that she produced, the cow produced am I expecting in the progeny, you know, and the daughter and in the sun? So what we found out is that 45% of that could be expected. But globally speaking, is a new topic, not new topic, but the results are just coming in, in every research groups that are looking into this, and other groups have, you know, estimated for 25% or 37%. So we're still, you know, adapting and trying to really understand it better to really be able to say, Okay, this is how much comes from genetics, and this is how much comes from the environment that you give to the animals. So the breakthrough, the potential breakthrough that we would have is that is to be able to answer that question to be able to say, okay, genetically, these animals can be better and can produce with lessmethane, because we know how much from those emissions are controlled by the genetics of the animals. And with that, you can pick really, you can choose the animals that you want to keep in your heart, and, you know, go towards the climate, the sustainability, the better sustainability of production that we, we all want.

Shenara: It's great. And you were commenting about your research, and it's connected to the Resilient Dairy Genome Projects, right? 

Lucas Lopes: Yep. 

Shenara: Could you give us some background about the project? 

Lucas Lopes: Yeah, I can surely do that. It is the Resilient Dairy Genome Project. We call it a large-scale project, because it involves, like so many different aspects of doing research. And it's, it's a project here are led by my advisor, Dr. Christine Baes, which is which the project itself was funded by Genome Canada. So in this project, what we what we aim to do is to enhance basically the Canadian dairy industry, looking at sustainability by using genomic tools and genetic knowledge on the animals to improve dairy cattle resilience, and resilience is a very broad concept that can relate to better production, but also that's lower emissions, and also looking into disease traits or reproductive traits from the animals. So the project is led, as I said, by my advisor, Dr. Christine Baes, but it's also involving other profs here in Canada. We have professors in University of British Columbia, we have professors in Quebec, we have in Alberta, but we are we also have other collaborators in other countries, for example, the US has many partners involved with us, some countries in Europe have huge participation in this project as well, because as I said, is a large scale. So what we need is, first of all, when we're working with animal science, and with animal genetics, especially when need a lot of data, need to collect a lot of data and measure animals for everything that we want to improve. So it's hard when you only have, let's say, two, three research herds. So this project aims to bring everybody together in this collaboration, to gather data to gather measurements, collect everything, and look into this and be able to answer these pending questions about production, sustainability, disease resistance and all that.

Shenara: How do you usually collect data when you think about measuring methane levels from the animals for this research? 

Lucas Lopes: Yeah, so methane, you can collect it in three basic, different ways. For my project, specifically how we are collecting is through a machine called Green Feed, which is basically a big bin, like a bin on wheels, so it's basically a cart that you put in front of a cow, and the cow can put her head in. So pallets come down from a pipe inside of this cart. And inside of that, that same “muzzle” that we call it, where the cows get put her head, and the pipe is dropping the pallets to, to make her eat to motivate her to eat those pallets and stay with her head inside of the muzzle and eat. While she's doing that she's breathing, right? So she's leeeting gases out like either co2 or methane. And then that machine has sensors inside that are capturing how much of those gases the cow is emitting. So that's one type of measurement that you can use to collect methane, basically, an every one of them, you're gonna have to collect gas somehow. This one is individually putting the cart in front of the animals. The other two are equipment that you either put around in front of the cow in front of the stall where the cow is. And that is collecting either if there's only one cow is going to collect that. But if there's more cows, it's going to collect the gas from all of them. And the other one, you can also put that in the milking system. And the other one is basically, if you look online, and if you search for it, it's called the sniff, the sulfur hexafluoride that you put on the back of the cow, and it captures the gases, you know, floating, let's say, around the cow as well. The second one I said, just so people know, it's called the sniffer. And it's basically a little metal device that you put on the ground, or on the wall, to capture gas around. So basically, you're collecting gases, either individually by placing the head of the cow inside of the machine, it's not invasive, neither of them are invasive, or hurts the cow in any way. But they're all collecting gas in different ways. And there are different accuracies and how reliable these machines are. And it all depends on how many cows you have, and the ease of use of these devices. So for example, you can imagine that working with a character is harder because they have to do cow by cow and it takes longer. But it's also more accurate when giving you the measurements because you're only measuring one cow, the other ones can capture gases that are not just from that cow, it all depends on what you want to do with each device. But that's just for methane. The other one that I use, that is really my golden nugget here is the rumination columns, right? So I work with trying or trying to correlate and define relationships between rumination which is how long the animals ruminate, again, for people that don't know about this, cows are ruminant animals. So they ruminate, which is basically they chew their food, they swallow it, they leave, they have it in the rumen for a while, which is the initial process of digesting their food, then they bring that food back to their mouth, they chew it all back again. And they keep doing that until the food is small enough to be digested and keep going through the digestive tract. So the rumination collars are put, literally collars, are put on the neck of the animals. And we have two types of those, we have the ones that measure the sound that they make when they're ruminating. And they collect that information in time. So how long that rumination went or they know by the activity of the cow and by how it moved by health cows moving its head that it's ruminating or not use the ones with the sound. And we're trying, as I said, to correlate that to methane emissions because the gas production from the animals happened from cows happened or happens when they are ruminating because the food inside of the room is fermenting. And that process of fermentation is where the gas especially methane is produced. So I'm trying to correlate how long they ruminate for with gas production. So, I collect both of that methane and rumination time to see what we can see at the end with the measurements. 

Shenara: Wow, it's great. So after you measure the gases, what's not about achievements or results that have been obtained so far in your investigation into the genetic mechanisms underlying rumination time, feeds efficiency, and methane emissions in Canadian dairy cattle? 

Lucas Lopes: Basically, what we had here, we were looking at, we were trying, as I said, to investigate the genetics, right like to see how genetics influenced this. So we had to look at it from different angles, let's say. So the first one, we were trying to, as I said at the beginning estimate how heritable that all this. That is how much I can expect from the progeny. But another part of my research was to try to identify in the DNA of the animals, what was related to rumination time, I did not look into methane in that aspect, but one of the results that we had was a correlation. That is how the change in methane, the change and the rumination time how they behaved with each other. And what we found is that animals that ruminate more, they emit less methane. And the opposite can be said as well. So animals that produce more methane are ruminating less. And ruminating is a very, very good indicator of well-being of the animals. So you can go and think that the animals that are ruminating more, they're healthier, and they're like, at least not I could when we wouldn't say healthier actually, but at least you're in better welfare than the ones that are not ruminating and they are also producing less gas. So, after seeing that went investigated, and the DNA, what regulates rumination, right? What regulates that process of chewing, swallowing, bringing it back to the mouth swallowing it again, and what we found were a number of genes in the DNA that relate to different processes and in the life of the cow. So these genes were related to muscle contraction, which is a big part of how the rumen works. The rumen is basically a big big stomach in the cow and it can tracks the whole time when rumination is happening when digestion is happening, just like our stomach does. But the cow, of course, is much bigger, and it has four different chambers where food is separated. And for all that to happen, you can imagine that it really needs a very good or very precise coordination of muscle contraction to make it all work. And that's what we found, like genes related to muscle contraction, genes related to neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, which are related to, again, the well-being and welfare of the animals and genes related to fat and protein production, which again, happened also in the rumen. And when we're talking about dairy cows fat and protein, how you're gonna end up in milk. So that's what we want, we want an animal that's ruminating. Well, that is in welfare. And it's, you know, it's a happy animal, let's say, and that's also producing a quality product. So the end, we want good milk and when we're more milk, and we found that rumination really relates to all of that. So that's, I think that's really nice.

Shenara: It's interesting, because that's why my mother always said to chew or food well, with cows are no different then, in terms of ruminating, of course. 

Lucas Lopes: So, the basic difference from them is that they rely on a vegetable or not vegetables, like grass-based diet, right? So basically, all they're eating is either grass and talked about forage. So eat a lot of corn and soy, for example, right. So if you go in any barn, you will, you will find a meal made out of corn and soy, or you're gonna find haylage, or silage, which are basically combinations of all of this. And those are very hard to digest, right? So ruminants, they evolved to be able to digest that. And their mechanism to do that is to ferment food in the rumen. And that's the whole process that allows them to do it. But for that, they really need to chew it multiple times during the day. So a cow, just so you know, spends eight hours basically in the day, just doing that, just ruminating, just digesting it all, you know, chewing, bringing it back yet, just to be able to digest everything. And they're very good at that, because that's how they evolved. And that's how they were, especially in the last 100 to 200 years, they were selected to do that. So when we think about feed efficiency, for example, so how well they can transform what they eat into the final product. That's what happens if they are very efficient, especially in North America. So Canada and the the US have very efficient animals because they're able to do that really well. And it's a combination again, of other things, because in the rumen, that cow has a very, very, very diverse microbiota, which is bacteria, protozoa, fungi, there's a lot of microorganisms in the room, and that help the cow digest at all. Because when the cow breaks, or the feed by chewing it, basically breaking it, it allows these microorganisms to chemically digested right. So you bring a big piece of leaf, for example, to small little pieces. And those little pieces are now open for the microorganisms to digest it and give the nutrients back to the cow. So it's that's why it's a we call the cow a host, because it hosts all the microbiota inside, amino acids and carbs.

Shenara: Oh, it's great. It's great. You were commenting about how good the cows are here in the US and Canada. And considering the unique context of your research within the Canadian dairy industry. Do you see the feasibility of applying similar protocols and genetic approach in other countries, especially in regions with significant dairy production like Brazil? 

Lucas Lopes: I do see, I do see the feasibility, the feasibility of doing it. But I think and I don't, I don't mean that in a bad way. Because you know, I'm Brazilian myself, but I think some other things need to be addressed first, in countries like Brazil and other countries around the world. Canada and the US have had selection programs for the animals for a century, basically, at least. So these animals have been selected, you know, like the producers have been looking at this and measuring these animals for decades. And for a century to be able to reach their levels of production and efficiency that we have today, when we look at Canada and the US are really at the at the high level of production and efficiency, and looking at how to make that, you know marginally better every generation of animals that we have. And right now our focus here is mapping, our focus in North American and European countries, like the Netherlands, for example, and Denmark is to reduce that prediction of methane because these animals are already efficient, they already produce a lot. But when you look at countries like Brazil, that selection for milk, for example, did not happen yet. So, there's a lot to be done. And there are countries regarding production levels, regarding producing more first and in meeting the demands from the countries before we get to the levels that we are in North America and European countries. And again, I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just because you know, there has to be one thing at a time, because you could argue that you could do it all at once. But I think it's easier if you just focus on being more productive, because being more productive will come with being more efficient as well. And if you're more efficient, then your methane emission, for example, can go lower a little bit initially without even looking at it. But once you have that those animals really, really efficient and productive and tropical countries, for example, then we can start talking about methane emissions, because Canada, for example, just released the National Genetic Evaluation for Animals for Methane Emissions. And it's the first country to publish an economic evaluation for methane. And it's also based on the methodologies of the use of artificial intelligence to predict how much these animals are going to produce based on their genetic potential. So you need to understand really understand the genetics of the animals to be able to reach the sustainability goals that we have. So we have in Canada, we have the 2050 net zero carbon emissions, which are followed by other countries as well, and I know that, but genetics play a big role on that, but it needs to be really well understood and then use in combination with other other parts of the production system.

Shenara: If you could say one big achievement of your project until now? Which one would you like to highlight?

Lucas Lopes: That's a big question. As I said, I think the big thing here is to really understand that it is a heritable trait. Like if we look at methane emissions is a heritable trait. That means that we can make progress by selecting animals. And there are other research groups that have reached the same conclusion. And we can use that to really keep investigating and keep going further into this examination or understanding of the genetic potential of the animals, to produce less methane, produce more milk, to be more sustainable to be more efficient, because as I said, we have the sustainability goals, we have the production goals, we have those estimates of 9 billion people to be fed in the world. And milk is a huge component of nutrition globally. So, I think when you look at methane specifically, is to really understand that progress can be done at both sides. We're looking at the genetic side. And that's really amazing. I think that's a really big part of it, rumination needs to be a little bit better understood on how a genetically relates to methane. But we are finding tools that allow us to measure or to predict methane in a better way, because as I said, at the beginning, measuring methane is very hard. If you need to collect gas from every single cow, and we have a herd here are 400 animals. But if you go to bigger farms, that becomes really, really hard to do cow by cow. And it's also very expensive, at least today. I hope that with time those equipments become cheaper and more accessible for the farmers to use, because I think that would really make our progress a lot faster. And meanwhile, while we can't be using these, the equipment to measure methane, we can find other tools. And I think that's what we're trying to do. And that's where the answer really the question, I think understanding that methane emissions are genetically have a big genetic component to it. And we can use other tools to predict that is really how we can move forward in the sustainability goals that we have to be done. And I think more data and more collaboration, as usual, will get us there.

Shenara: Oh, that's fantastic. So Lucas, I really appreciate your time with us. And thank you again, for sharing your knowledge and experience today.

Lucas Lopes: Yeah, I think I would just like to thank you again, for the invite. And thank you University of Florida for this opportunity. And for the idea, right like of the podcast between students, which I think it's amazing. I would like to officially also and acknowledge and thank my advisor, Dr. Christine Baes, this is all her idea. Her thinking and planning for all of us to be part of this. And of course, Genome Canada and all of the partners involved in the Resilient Dairy Genetic Project, which are part of the Efficient Dairy Genetic Project came after the Efficient Dairy Genome Project as well. So if people want to go and read about it, it's all a chain of big projects that are, you know, as I said, keeping this investigation going and it's really, really nice to be part of all of this. So yeah, I would just like to thank all of these guys and you guys in Florida as well for the for this opportunity.

Shenara: Thank you, Lucas and thanking you for listening to the Sustainable Solutions: from Guelph to Gainesville series on the Streaming Science podcast. Make sure to check out our website and social media for more of our work. If you enjoy this episode, we encourage you to tune in to the other episodes in our series and to visit the University of Guelph web pages and social media for more info. Once again, I am your host Shenara Ramadan. Thanks for listening. For more information about this episode visit the links in our show notes.