Methane emission and thermoregulation in cattle: a study of circadian variation in tropical environment

• Grant number: 14/09639-7
• Support type: Research Program on Global Climate Change - Regular Grants
• Duration: September 01, 2014 - August 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Ecology of Domestic Animals and Ethology
• Principal researcher: Alex Sandro Campos Maia
• Grantee: Alex Sandro Campos Maia
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Marcos Chiquitelli Neto ; Maria da Graca Pinheiro ; Newton La Scala Júnior ; Roberto Gomes da Silva ; Sheila Tavares Nascimento ; Telma Teresinha Berchielli

Abstract

Brazil instituted its National Policy on Climatic Change - PNMC by the Law nr.12.187/09. By this Law Brazil can adopt voluntary actions in order to reduce greenhouse gases emissions (GEE). In 2013 the MCTI published its Inventories, where the livestock production was responsible for methane emission of 267.85 Tg CO2eq CH4, contributing directly with 21.49% of all the Brazilian emission. However, these estimates show high uncertainty. In this case methane emission by enteric fermentation has an uncertainty of 34%. There are some situations that contribute for this high uncertainty, like the imprecision of IPCC data used that has no appropriate values for Brazilian conditions. Some research about CH4 emission in ruminants in Brazil have been developed to solve this situation, using the SF6 technique. However SF6 is a greenhouse gas , and its carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) is 23,900 while of CH4 is only 21. Using this technique is possible to develop work under field conditions, but on the other hand it does not permit a continuous measurement of other gases from respiration. It does not permit either the study of the thermorregulation of animals associated with different meteorological conditions. Obviously, these researches does not give information about the influence of thermal environments, like air temperature and humidity; and mainly about the influence of solar radiation underthe methane emission and under thermal equilibrium in ruminants. For this reason, the Nucleus of Innovation in Animal Biometeorology has developed and used a System of Physiological Measurements that measured the CH4 emission in Nellore cattle. This emission was highly influenced by direct solar radiation, decreasing from 60.44 to 42.31 kg year-1 animal-1 when they were managed exposed to sun. In this scenario, considering thethe responsibility of Brazil to develop annual inventories about the emission of greenhouse gases with a small uncertainty of this estimates; the use of a technique that releases a greenhouse gas (SF6) and does not permit a continuous measurement in the time associated with other physiological variables, this project was born with the aim to develop and to improve the System of Physiological Measurements to the continuous register of the enteric methane emission under field conditions simultaneously with the thermoregulation of animals associated with atmosphere conditions. (AU)

Scientific publications

(5)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CAMPOS MAIA, ALEX SANDRO; CULHARI, ERIC DE ANDRADE; CARVALHO FONSECA, VINICIUS DE FRANCA; MILAN, HUGO FERNANDO MAIA; GEBREMEDHIN, KIFLE G. Photovoltaic panels as shading resources for livestock. JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION, v. 258, JUN 10 2020. Web of Science Citations: 3.

NASCIMENTO, SHEILA TAVARES; CAMPOS MAIA, ALEX SANDRO; CARVALHO FONSECA, VINICIUS DE FRANCA; NAGIB NASCIMENTO, CAROLINA CARDOSO; DE CARVALHO, MARCOS DAVI; PINHEIRO, MARIA DA GRACA. Physiological responses and thermal equilibrium of Jersey dairy cows in tropical environment. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOMETEOROLOGY, v. 63, n. 11, SI, p. 1487-1496, NOV 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

DE MELO COSTA, CINTIA CAROL; CAMPOS MAIA, ALEX SANDRO; BROWN-BRANDL, TAMI M.; NETO, MARCOS CHIQUITELLI; CARVALHO FONSECA, VINICIUS DE FRANCA. Thermal equilibrium of Nellore cattle in tropical conditions: an investigation of circadian pattern. Journal of Thermal Biology, v. 74, p. 317-324, MAY 2018. Web of Science Citations: 5.

MILAN, H. F. M.; MAIA, A. S. C.; GEBREMEDHIN, K. G. Technical note: Device for measuring respiration rate of cattle under field conditions. JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE, v. 94, n. 12, p. 5434-5438, DEC 2016. Web of Science Citations: 4.

CAMERRO, LEANDRO ZUCCHERATO; CAMPOS MAIA, ALEX SANDRO; CHIQUITELLI NETO, MARCOS; DE MELO COSTA, CINTIA CAROL; CASTRO, PATRIC ANDRE. Thermal equilibrium responses in Guzerat cattle raised under tropical conditions. Journal of Thermal Biology, v. 60, p. 213-221, AUG 2016. Web of Science Citations: 3.