Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) is a developing region characterized
for its importance for global food security, producing 23 and 11% of the
global beef and milk production, respectively. The region’s ruminant
livestock sector however, is under public scrutiny mainly due to its large
contribution to enteric methane (CH4) emissions and influence on global
climate change. Due to the region’s unique agricultural practices,
common CH4 mitigation strategies may not be applicable to LAC
livestock systems. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were
to: 1) collate a database of individual animal records from enteric CH4
emission studies conducted in the LAC region, and 2) perform a metaanalysis
to identify feasible enteric CH4 mitigation strategies, which do
not compromise animal performance. The LAC database contained 2745
individual animal records and the meta-analysis was performed
according to a random effects model weighted by inverse variance. From
the 34 strategies evaluated in the present study, 16 mitigated at least
one enteric CH4 metric without compromising animal productivity, and
from those, only seven simultaneously increased animal performance.
Under grazing conditions, adequate grazing management, under both
continuous and rotational stocking, supplementation with tanniferous
and saponiferous legumes, and increased dietary concentrate levels were
identified as successful strategies to mitigate enteric CH4 while
increasing animal productivity. For confined systems, strategies such as
increased dietary protein and lipid inclusion, addition of ionophoric
antibiotics and nitrate supplementation reduced enteric CH4 without
impairing animal performance. Increased feeding level and F1 Holstein ×
Gyr crossbreed increased enteric CH4 production but reduced CH4
intensity considerably and can also be utilized as an enteric CH4
mitigation strategy. The identified strategies can aid LAC countries in promptly achieving sustainable development goals as defined in the Paris
Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change.