The New Zealand-led “Global Rumen Census” project analysed the microbes responsible for ethane emissions from a wide range of ruminant animals around the world. The project found imilar bacteria and methanogens dominate in nearly all rumens across a wide variety of species and animal diets. This means that new technologies that seek to reduce methane emissions by influencing rumen microbes should have global applications.


The results of the Global Rumen Census were released on 9 October 2015 in the open-access journal Scientific Reports.


Global press release 


 GRC Global Release (0.31MB) 


New Zealand press release


 GRC New Zealand Release (0.34MB) 


Science Q&A


 GRC Q&A (0.29MB) 


Rumen microbial community composition varies with diet and host, but a core microbiome is found across a wide geographical range
G. Henderson, F. Cox, S. Ganesh, A. Jonker, W. Young, P.H. Janssen. 2015. 
Scientific Reports 5: 14567.
www.nature.com/articles/srep14567