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      The use of biochar in animal feeding

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          Abstract

          Biochar, that is, carbonized biomass similar to charcoal, has been used in acute medical treatment of animals for many centuries. Since 2010, livestock farmers increasingly use biochar as a regular feed supplement to improve animal health, increase nutrient intake efficiency and thus productivity. As biochar gets enriched with nitrogen-rich organic compounds during the digestion process, the excreted biochar-manure becomes a more valuable organic fertilizer causing lower nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emissions during storage and soil application. Scientists only recently started to investigate the mechanisms of biochar in the different stages of animal digestion and thus most published results on biochar feeding are based so far on empirical studies. This review summarizes the state of knowledge up to the year 2019 by evaluating 112 relevant scientific publications on the topic to derive initial insights, discuss potential mechanisms behind observations and identify important knowledge gaps and future research needs. The literature analysis shows that in most studies and for all investigated farm animal species, positive effects on different parameters such as toxin adsorption, digestion, blood values, feed efficiency, meat quality and/or greenhouse gas emissions could be found when biochar was added to feed. A considerable number of studies provided statistically non-significant results, though tendencies were mostly positive. Rare negative effects were identified in regard to the immobilization of liposoluble feed ingredients (e.g., vitamin E or Carotenoids) which may limit long-term biochar feeding. We found that most of the studies did not systematically investigate biochar properties (which may vastly differ) and dosage, which is a major drawback for generalizing results. Our review demonstrates that the use of biochar as a feed additive has the potential to improve animal health, feed efficiency and livestock housing climate, to reduce nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emissions, and to increase the soil organic matter content and thus soil fertility when eventually applied to soil. In combination with other good practices, co-feeding of biochar may thus have the potential to improve the sustainability of animal husbandry. However, more systematic multi-disciplinary research is definitely needed to arrive at generalizable recommendations.

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          Most cited references219

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          Methane emissions from cattle.

          Increasing atmospheric concentrations of methane have led scientists to examine its sources of origin. Ruminant livestock can produce 250 to 500 L of methane per day. This level of production results in estimates of the contribution by cattle to global warming that may occur in the next 50 to 100 yr to be a little less than 2%. Many factors influence methane emissions from cattle and include the following: level of feed intake, type of carbohydrate in the diet, feed processing, addition of lipids or ionophores to the diet, and alterations in the ruminal microflora. Manipulation of these factors can reduce methane emissions from cattle. Many techniques exist to quantify methane emissions from individual or groups of animals. Enclosure techniques are precise but require trained animals and may limit animal movement. Isotopic and nonisotopic tracer techniques may also be used effectively. Prediction equations based on fermentation balance or feed characteristics have been used to estimate methane production. These equations are useful, but the assumptions and conditions that must be met for each equation limit their ability to accurately predict methane production. Methane production from groups of animals can be measured by mass balance, micrometeorological, or tracer methods. These techniques can measure methane emissions from animals in either indoor or outdoor enclosures. Use of these techniques and knowledge of the factors that impact methane production can result in the development of mitigation strategies to reduce methane losses by cattle. Implementation of these strategies should result in enhanced animal productivity and decreased contributions by cattle to the atmospheric methane budget.
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            Extracellular electron transfer mechanisms between microorganisms and minerals.

            Electrons can be transferred from microorganisms to multivalent metal ions that are associated with minerals and vice versa. As the microbial cell envelope is neither physically permeable to minerals nor electrically conductive, microorganisms have evolved strategies to exchange electrons with extracellular minerals. In this Review, we discuss the molecular mechanisms that underlie the ability of microorganisms to exchange electrons, such as c-type cytochromes and microbial nanowires, with extracellular minerals and with microorganisms of the same or different species. Microorganisms that have extracellular electron transfer capability can be used for biotechnological applications, including bioremediation, biomining and the production of biofuels and nanomaterials.
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              Redox properties of plant biomass-derived black carbon (biochar).

              Soils and sediments worldwide contain appreciable amounts of thermally altered organic matter (chars). Chars contain electroactive quinoid functional groups and polycondensed aromatic sheets that were recently shown to be of biogeochemical and envirotechnical relevance. However, so far no systematic investigation of the redox properties of chars formed under different pyrolysis conditions has been performed. Here, using mediated electrochemical analysis, we show that chars made from different feedstock and over a range of pyrolysis conditions are redox-active and reversibly accept and donate up to 2 mmol electrons per gram of char. The analysis of two thermosequences revealed that chars produced at intermediate to high heat treatment temperatures (HTTs) (400-700 °C) show the highest capacities to accept and donate electrons. Combined electrochemical, elemental, and spectroscopic analyses of the thermosequence chars provide evidence that the pool of redox-active moieties is dominated by electron-donating, phenolic moieties in the low-HTT chars, by newly formed electron accepting quinone moieties in intermediate-HTT chars, and by electron accepting quinones and possibly condensed aromatics in the high-HTT chars. We propose to consider chars in environmental engineering applications that require controlled electron transfer reactions. Electroactive char components may also contribute to the redox properties of traditionally defined "humic substances".
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ Inc. (San Diego, USA )
                2167-8359
                31 July 2019
                2019
                : 7
                : e7373
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Ithaka Institute for Carbon Strategies , Arbaz, Valais, Switzerland
                [2 ]Environmental Analytics, Agroscope , Zurich, Switzerland
                [3 ]Ithaka Institute for Carbon Intelligence , Victor, NY, USA
                [4 ]Department of Applied Ecology, Hochschule Geisenheim University , Geisenheim, Germany
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8005-9392
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7477-1279
                Article
                7373
                10.7717/peerj.7373
                6679646
                31396445
                c228894f-c68b-4889-a033-39884b9ad59c
                © 2019 Schmidt et al.

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.

                History
                : 7 May 2019
                : 28 June 2019
                Funding
                Funded by: BioC project of the r4d call of the Swiss National Science Foundation
                Funded by: BMBF-funded project BioCAP-CCS
                Award ID: 01LS1620A and 01LS1620B
                This study was financed by the BioC project of the r4d call of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Claudia Kammann received financial support from the BMBF-funded project BioCAP-CCS, grants no. 01LS1620A and 01LS1620B. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Agricultural Science
                Ecology
                Soil Science
                Veterinary Medicine
                Environmental Impacts

                livestock emissions,biochar feed,mycotoxins,animal health,feed efficiency,pesticides,animal digestion,enteric methane emissions,redox activity

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