This review summarizes the importance of
enteric methane (CH4) emission in ruminants
and summarizes the current state of knowledge
relevant to genetic aspects on enteric methane
production, highlighting future research needs
and directions. Global average temperature has
increased by about 0.7°C in the last century. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) reported that anthropogenic greenhouse
gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2),
CH4, nitrous oxide (N2O) and halocarbons, have
been responsible for most of the observed temperature
increase since the middle of the twentieth
century. Agriculture, particularly livestock,
is increasingly being recognized as both a contributor
to the process and a potential victim of
it. Policy interventions and technical solutions
are required to address both the impact of livestock
production on climate change and the
effects of climate change on livestock production.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
declared that in the next 50 years, the world’s
farmers will be called upon to produce more food
than has been produced in the past 10,000 years,
and to do so in environmentally sustainable
ways. Therefore, the GHG reduction should be
treated as a public good. The United States congress
is prospecting to define a price on GHG
emissions. Limiting the concentration of CO2
and other GHG in Earth’s atmosphere requires a
technological and economic revolution. A costeffective
way could be the genetic improvement
of livestock, which produces permanent and
cumulative changes in perfor mance. Animal
variation in enteric CH4 emission has been
reported in the literature, providing potential for
improvement through genetic selection.
