Genetic parameters for methane indicator traits based on milk fatty acids in Dual Purpose Belgian Blue cattle

Dairy production is pointed out for its large methane emission. Therefore, specific nutritional strategies are applying to abate methane emission but very less information is available about the animal genetic variability of methane emission. Methane indicators using traits indirectly related to methane and easily recorded like the mid-infrared (MIR) prediction of fatty acid could be used to conduct genetic studies. MIR methane indicators used in this study were derived from published fatty acid based methane indicators using 597 calibration samples. Genetic parameters of these MIR indicators were estimated by single trait random regression test-day models from 13,389 records collected on 1602 Dual Purpose Belgium Blue cows in their first 3 lactations. For the published indicator showing the highest relationship (R2 =0.88) with Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) methane emission data, the average daily heritability was 0.25±0.06, 0.25±0.07 and 0.18±0.09 for the first three lactations, respectively. Similarly, the lactation heritability was 0.45±0.09, 0.46±0.11 and 0.24±0.14. The sire genetic variability was 3.60, 4.08, 1.19 kg2 of methane for the first three lactation, respectively. The genetic difference between the sires having cows eructing the highest and the lowest methane content was 11.62, 13.01 and 5.98 kg per lactation for the first three parities. This study suggested that methane indicator traits can be predicted by MIR and the genetic variability of these traits seems to exist. Therefore, it also suggests the genetic variability of methane content eructed by dairy cows. These first finding might open new opportunities for animal selection program on methane emission.