Influence of Escherichia coli inclusion and soybean hulls based diets on ruminal biomethane and carbon dioxide productions in sheep

In livestock production, ruminal fermentation leads to significant loss of digestible feed energy and increase methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) productions. These gases are the major sources of greenhouse gases that cause environmental degradation and climate change. The present study aimed at investigating the sustainable control of CH4 and CO2 production from ruminal fermentation by evaluating ruminal inclusion of Escherichia coli (E. coli) on diets containing different levels of soybean hulls (SH) replacing corn grains (CG). Three different levels of mixed ration were prepared; CG was replaced with SH at three different levels (per kg dry matter (DM)): 0 g (control), 75 g (SH 75), and 150 g (SH 150). The E. coli was used at four doses: 0, 10, 20 and 40 μL/g DM of substrate. The SH rations had decreased linear and quadratic (P