Jab stops cows from letting rip

METHANE REDUCED

COWS could be given vaccine jabs to reduce the methane in their worldending burps and farts.

Experts are exploring how to make them climate-friendly as we fight global warming. Methane – which they emit from eating grass – is at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to climate change. The vaccine has the potential to reduce cattle gases by at least 30%. It stimulates their immune systems to produce antibodies which dampen the output of methane-producing microbes. Peter Janssen, a principal scientist at New Zealand Government-owned company AgResearch, said: “I believe it’s going to work – that’s the motivation for doing it.”