That’s just gas! Vaccine to curb flatulence in cows
A VACCINE that stops cows from passing wind is being developed by an Irish professor to fight the emission of climate-changing methane gas.
It comes as the national herd faces a reduction by as many as one million cows in a bid to reach the Government’s 25% emissions curb target by 2030 – causing fury and concern among farmers.
However, a new ‘silver bullet’ vaccine is being developed by Professor John Roche, of Castleisland, Co. Kerry, to stop cows producing methane.
He explained that ruminants have evolved over the past 60million years to excrete methane, a key element in climate change.
Speaking about the invention, Dr Roche, chief scientific adviser for the Department of Primary Industries in New Zealand, said: ‘The Holy Grail is a methane vaccine and we’ve been working on that in New Zealand for the past ten to 15 years. It’s certainly on the horizon and could be a silver bullet.
‘As people have learnt through the entire Covid situation we’ve been through over the last three years, vaccines are both highrisk and potentially high-reward.
‘It’s a tall ask to knock down methane – it’s not a small job – but what we have learnt over the last 20 to 30 years is the microorganisms that are responsible for breaking down methane and the metabolic pathways that microorganisms use.’
Dr Roche, who grew up on a dairy, beef and sheep farm in Castleisland, believes the vaccine could bring the Government ‘very close’ to reaching its emissions target.
He said: ‘We’ve now got to the point where we have developed a vaccine, and we’ve identified the microorganisms.
‘We know that the animals can produce antibodies having been vaccinated. We know that those antibodies can reduce methane emissions in a laboratory. So we’re at that stage where we need to accelerate research and development to see whether we can get it to work in a live animal.’
Dr Roche added: ‘There’s a number of strategies being trialled to interrupt those processes [of excretion]. The commercial product available in Europe now, which is a Dutch product, was approved by the European Food Safety Authority a couple of months back.
‘That interferes with the enzymatic activity of the microorganisms and it interrupts the processing of producing methane.’
Speaking on the Government’s target, Dr Roche said: ‘The 25% is certainly a big target. But there’s work going on here in Ireland and I’ve seen work on genetics.
‘We have similar work going on in New Zealand in sheep. The researchers in New Zealand were able to create two different flocks that differed in their methane production by 20%. There was no difference in growth rate or wool quality but a 20% difference in methane emissions. That just shows you the potential of genetics alone.
‘Genetics is a long-term game, and so you are not going to achieve 25% by 2030 by genetics alone, but there is a lot of work going on in that space in Ireland.’