Recent Nutritional Advances to Mitigate Methane Emission in Cattle: A Review

Climate change and preventative regulations on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have forced countries to focus on reducing the emission of GHG by the causative factors. The rapid increase in the world popula-tion, the culture of urbanization and enhanced income of human societies over the past few decades have raised concerns about more effective and sustainable ways of the food supply with minimum adverse ef-fects on the environment. The livestock sector is very important in terms of meat, milk, and eggs, that all of them are important and high-quality constituents of human nutrition. Despite the value of these products, livestock and poultry have not ever been without a detrimental effect on the environment, and the challenge for researchers and scientists in this field has tried to minimize these adverse effects. GHGs such as CH4, CO2 and N2O, and nitrogen and phosphorus disposal are some of them, which affect both the livestock and poultry sector. About 14.5% of total global anthropogenic GHG per year has been attributed to the domestic animal production sector, which is equal to 7.1 gigatonnes of the annual CO2 equivalent (CO2equ) of GHG. Approximately, 44%, 29% and 27% of the sector’s emissions are CH4, N2O, and CO2, respectively. Meth-ane production and N2O emission in ruminants are not only effective on the environment but also on animal performance, so the use of multipurpose strategies to reduce the emission of these compounds can improve livestock performance in addition to positive environmental impacts. Since more than 54% of the annual production of CO2equ has been accounted for beef cattle, using different mitigation strategies in this section is more essential. The present review aimed to summarize the current knowledge and findings of the influ-encing factors on GHG emissions from beef cattle.