Dr. Richard LOBO
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Richard Lobo earned his BS and MS degrees from Sao Paulo State University and University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil, respectively. Then he earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida and joined Dairy Experts and the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center from University of California – Davis as a Postdoctoral fellow.
Dr. Lobo’s research is focused on ruminal metabolism and microbiome, with an emphasis on improving animal health and productivity and the sustainability of ruminants production systems. He has broad experience on evaluation of feed ingredients and additives on ruminal metabolism, microbiome, and methanogenesis.
The goal of his research is to advance ruminant nutrition and production systems thought a more efficient and sustainable path.
Company
University of California – Davis
Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center
Dairy Experts
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Presentation
Chinese version 🇨🇳
Spanish version 🇪🇸
Portuguese version 🇵🇹
Exploring the Potential of Dietary Algal Biomass and Their Impacts on Ruminal Metabolism and the Microbiome.
Chlorella and Spirulina are key algae with great potential for animal nutrition because they can modulate nutrient utilization.
A series of in vitro experiments were conducted aiming to evaluate ruminal metabolism when Chlorella or Spirulina partially replaced soybean meal in the diet of lactating dairy cows. When we evaluated the interaction effects of diets with algae with contrasting carbohydrate profile using a batch culture system, no interaction between algae and carbohydrate was observed, which indicates that both algae enticed similar fermentation performance regardless of dietary carbohydrate profile, along with a reduction in methane emissions. When evaluated as a partial replacement to soybean meal, algae reduced ammonia concentration, branched-chain fatty acids, isoacids, and methane emissions in a ruminal dual-flow continuous culture system, which indicates that they, particularly Chlorella, have lower protein degradation in the rumen with greater nitrogen utilization efficiency and lower methane emissions.
Collectively, this is important because we demonstrated that algae can improve nutrient utilization and reduce methane emissions when added to dairy cows diets.