Association Between Methane Concentration Measured by a Modified Mask System and GreenFeed Methane Production in Dairy Cows.
- 1Department of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition (DIANA), Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
- 2Department of Veterinary Sciences, Università di Messina, 98168 Messina, Italy.
- 3Romeo and Enrica Invernizzi Research Center for Sustainable Dairy Production of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (CREI), 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
Abstract
Accurate measurement of enteric methane (CH₄) emissions is essential for methane phenotyping, but established techniques may be costly and difficult to apply to large numbers of animals. This study evaluated a simple mask-based system for measuring CH₄ concentration in exhaled breath of lactating dairy cows in comparison with CH₄ production measured using GreenFeed. Thirty-two Holstein cows were evaluated, generating 60 paired observations. On each sampling day, exhaled breath was collected using the mask during three 5 min periods, and CH₄ concentration was determined by micro gas chromatography. Mask CH₄ concentration was positively associated with GreenFeed CH₄ production (Pearson r = 0.616; Spearman ρ = 0.606; p < 0.001). The association remained significant after accounting for repeated observations within cows using a linear mixed-effects model (β = 53.1 ± 15.7 g/day per 0.1 percentage-point increase in mask CH₄, 95% CI: 22.3 to 84.0; p < 0.001). An exploratory within-cow analysis was also performed in four cows evaluated over five sampling days. Positive within-cow correlations were observed in all four animals (r = 0.157-0.699), but none reached statistical significance (p > 0.05). These results indicate that CH₄ concentration measured using the mask contains information on differences in methane emission among cows and may have potential as a methane phenotyping measure.
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BibTeX
@article{sfulcini2026association,
title = {{Association Between Methane Concentration Measured by a Modified Mask System and GreenFeed Methane Production in Dairy Cows.}},
author = {Marta Sfulcini and Vincenzo Lopreiato and Fiorenzo Piccioli-Cappelli and Erminio Trevisi and Andrea Minuti},
journal = {Animals : an open access journal from MDPI},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/ani16193156},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883125},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Association Between Methane Concentration Measured by a Modified Mask System and GreenFeed Methane Production in Dairy Cows.
AU - Marta Sfulcini
AU - Vincenzo Lopreiato
AU - Fiorenzo Piccioli-Cappelli
AU - Erminio Trevisi
AU - Andrea Minuti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
JO - Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
DO - 10.3390/ani16193156
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883125
AB - Accurate measurement of enteric methane (CH₄) emissions is essential for methane phenotyping, but established techniques may be costly and difficult to apply to large numbers of animals. This study evaluated a simple mask-based system for measuring CH₄ concentration in exhaled breath of lactating dairy cows in comparison with CH₄ production measured using GreenFeed. Thirty-two Holstein cows were evaluated, generating 60 paired observations. On each sampling day, exhaled breath was collected using the mask during three 5 min periods, and CH₄ concentration was determined by micro gas chromatography. Mask CH₄ concentration was positively associated with GreenFeed CH₄ production (Pearson r = 0.616; Spearman ρ = 0.606; p < 0.001). The association remained significant after accounting for repeated observations within cows using a linear mixed-effects model (β = 53.1 ± 15.7 g/day per 0.1 percentage-point increase in mask CH₄, 95% CI: 22.3 to 84.0; p < 0.001). An exploratory within-cow analysis was also performed in four cows evaluated over five sampling days. Positive within-cow correlations were observed in all four animals (r = 0.157-0.699), but none reached statistical significance (p > 0.05). These results indicate that CH₄ concentration measured using the mask contains information on differences in methane emission among cows and may have potential as a methane phenotyping measure.
SN - 2076-2615
ER -