Rainer Roehe is a Professor of Animal Genetics and
Microbiome at Scotland’s Rural College. He completed his Ph.D. studies at the University
of Kiel in 1990. His publication entitled ‘Bovine host genetic variation influences
rumen microbial methane production with best selection criterion for low
methane emitting and efficiently feed converting hosts based on metagenomic
gene abundance‘ was awarded the PLOS Genetics Research Prize 2017 based on
scientific excellence and community impact. In addition, his team’s host
genetics-microbiome research has been shortlisted for the Times Higher
Education Honours Award 2018 in the category Research Project of the Year: STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). His overall research aim is to
obtain insight into the microbiome in the rumen (the first of cow’s four
stomachs), its effects on the performance of bovine and its interactions with the
host genome. Specifically, he is interested in understanding the functional
genetics and pathways of the rumen microbiome and microbial genes associated
with performance traits in bovine. His research is involved in the
identification of quantitative genetic and genomic links between the host
animal and rumen microbial community as well as microbial genes to be exploited
for the mitigation of methane emissions and improvement of feed conversion efficiency,
meat quality, animal health, behavioural and welfare traits in ruminants.
Richard James Dewhurst is a Professor of Ruminant Nutrition
and Production Systems and the Head of the Dairy Research Centre. He joined
SRUC in 2013. He received the ‘Sir John Hammond Memorial Award’ in 2008 and has
served as President of both the New Zealand Society of Animal Production and
the British Society of Animal Science. He was the Chair of the Scientific
Committee for the Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture Conference (Dublin,
2013) and is currently one of the Co-Chairs of the Global Research Alliance
(GRA) Livestock Research Group (LRG) community. He has worked at the interfaces
between ruminant nutrition, product composition and rumen function—including the
modelling of forage composition, dry cow feeding strategies, fatty acids and
fertility, and rumen diagnostics over 35 years. His current research is about
developing markers for feed conversion efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions
from ruminants and exploring host interactions with the intestinal microbiome.
He is also involved in managing the long-running Langhill Dairy Cow breeding
study. He enjoys working with colleagues from around the world in a series of
major international collaborative projects, including EU projects
‘HoloRuminant’ and ‘AgroServ’ and the Global Dairy Platform’s ‘Pathways to
Dairy Net Zero’ project.
