The Department of Animal Science will host Jeff Firkins, Professor of Animal Science from The Ohio State University for a guest seminar titled, "Exploring Methane Abatement in Ruminants: The Search for the Missing Hydrogen Link."
The seminar will be held on Thursday, May 14 at 11:30 a.m., in room A222 in the Animal Science Complex on East Campus and is open to faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students. An informal Q&A with Dr. Firkins will follow the seminar.
Dr. Firkins will cover how many previous approaches to inhibit rumen methanogenesis have been limited based on oversimplification of microbial interactions in the rumen and ignoring ruminal outflow of electrons in microbial cells, which he will advocate is a key missing hydrogen link. Although decreasing methane per unit of dry matter intake (DMI), too many approaches also decreased DMI, which is the key driver for microbial growth.
Dr. Firkins was raised on a grain and livestock farm in northern Illinois. Following postdoctoral research in dairy nutrition at Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, he was hired as an Assistant Professor of dairy cattle nutrition in the Department of Dairy Sciences (now the Department of Animal Sciences) at The Ohio State University in 1987 and has moved through the ranks to Full Professor in 2000. His main research priorities include the interface between nutrition and microbiology to improve fiber digestibility, enhance the conversion of dietary protein into microbial protein (and thereby milk protein), and to reduce enteric methane production. Dr. Firkins has served multiple terms as a journal editor for Journal of Animal Science, British Journal of Nutrition, and Journal of Dairy Science; panelist or manager of USDA competitive grants; and on planning committees for international conferences in gut microbiology and ruminant physiology. He has advised and served on committees of over 100 graduate students, including 7 Ph.D.’s from other countries. He served as Director of the interdisciplinary nutrition Ph.D. program at OSU for 9 years and was Associate Director for 10 years. Out of over 600 publications and presentations, he has more than 175 peer-reviewed publications and 200 invited presentations in more than 20 countries. He served on the committee for the 8th Edition of the Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle. He has several research awards and is a fellow of the American Dairy Science Association and is Distinguished College of FAES Professor.
