Aarhus University

Denmark

Aarhus University (AU) has five faculties – Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences and School of Business & Social Sciences. The five faculties cover the entire research spectrum – basic research, applied research, strategic research and research based advice to the authorities. AU has 38,000 students; about 1800 PhD students – of which one in four has a foreign nationality – and close to 1,000 postdoctoral scholars together with 10700 employees. As such, internationalisation is a key part of AU’s mission and it continuously works to strengthen the international profile of the University. AU has participated in 278 FP7 and 363 H2020 projects – 21 and 35, respectively, as coordinator – and has hosted/is currently hosting 61 ERC projects. AU has state-of-the-art barn facilities for animal experiments and laboratories for chemical and nutritional characterization of feed and digesta. AU has specialized equipment to quantify enteric methane from ruminants as well as description of rumen microbiome.

Competence and main role(s) in the project

In Task 3.5 AU will study the interaction between fat and two of the most promising feed additives will be evaluated in a production study with 48 lactating Holstein dairy cows through a project funded by the Danish Ministry. Enteric methane will be measured using GreenFeed. Rumen samples will be analyzed using metaTaxo sequencing.

Project staff

Peter Lund

Peter Lund is professor in Sustainable Dairy Production at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research area is ruminant nutrition with emphasis on the interaction between nutrition, animal genetics and rumen microbiome and on feed additives and feeding strategies that can facilitate significant reductions in enteric methane. He gives advice to public authorities on the climate and environmental impact of cattle production with special emphasis on feed additives and feeding strategies to reduce enteric methane, and inclusion of this in the national inventory system.

Ole Højberg

Ole Højberg’s research focuses on microbial turnover in the gastrointestinal tract of livestock, investigating microbial processes and microorganisms involved, to optimize growth performance and health of monogastrics and ruminants without use of antimicrobials and with minimal environmental and climatic impact.

Samantha Joan Noel

Samantha Joan Noel’s main expertise is in gut microbiology of animals, with a special focus on the rumen and the effect of diet and methane mitigation strategies on the microbiome, as well as molecular biology, bioinformatics and ‘omics’ technologies.

The HoloRuminant project has received funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 101000213. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and not the European Commission (EC). The EC is not liable for any use that may be made of them information contained herein.