Scieists are looking to change the bacteria in the iestines of cows and a miracle pill to stop cows from belching!
A scieist guides a long tube io the mouth and then io the stomach of a two-moh-old calf as part of a research project to preve cows from belching methane (a pote greenhouse gas), Techna Tech Media Animal Science News Service reports. University of California postdoctoral researcher Paolo Di Meo Filo is part of an ambitious experime to develop a pill to alter cow gut bacteria to emit less or no methane.
While the fossil fuel industry and some natural sources emit methane, livestock farming has become a major climate concern due to the high volume of emissions from cattle.
“Almost half of the (global) temperature increase we’ve had so far has been due to methane,” said Ermias Kobarab, a professor of animal science at the University of California, Berkeley. Methane, the second leading cause of climate change after carbon dioxide, breaks down faster than CO2 but is more pote. Methane remains in the atmosphere for about 12 years, unlike carbon dioxide which remains for ceuries. If we start reducing methane now, we can see the effect on temperature very quickly.
Using rumen fluid samples, scieists study the microbes that convert hydrogen io methane, which is not digested by cows but belched out. A single cow belches about 220 pounds (100 kg) of this gas annually.
Social beings
This calf and other calves receive a diet supplemeed with seaweed to reduce methane production. Scieists hope to achieve similar results by iroducing genetically modified microbes that absorb hydrogen, starving methane-producing bacteria at the source. However, the team is proceeding with caution.
“We can’t simply reduce methane production by eliminating methane-producing bacteria, because hydrogen can build up to the poi where it harms the animal,” said Matthias Hess, who runs the UC Davis lab. Microbes are social organisms. They really like to live together. How they ieract and influence each other affects the overall functioning of the ecosystem.
Mr. Hess’s studes test differe formulations in bioreactors, vessels that reproduce the conditions in which microorganisms live in the stomach, from movemes to temperatures.
More productive cows
According to Tekna technology news media, this project is being carried out at the University of California, Davis laboratory, as well as the Innovative Genomics Institute of the University of California, Berkeley (IGI). IGI scieists are trying to ideify the right microbe, one they hope to genetically engineer to replace methane-producing microbes. The modified microorganisms will then be tested in the laboratory and on animals at the University of California, Davis.
“We are not only trying to reduce methane emissions, but we also wa to increase feed efficiency,” said Mr. Kabrab. “Hydrogen and methane are both energy, so if we reduce this energy and direct it to something else… we will both have better productivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
The ultimate goal is a single-dose treatme administered early in life, as most cattle graze freely and cannot receive daily supplemes. Three research teams have been given $70 million and seven years to achieve a breakthrough.
Kebrab has long studied sustainable animal husbandry practices and opposed calls to reduce meat consumption to save the planet. While he acknowledges this may work for healthy adults in developed couries, he pois to couries like Indonesia, where the governme is struggling to increase meat and dairy production because 20 perce of children under five are stued. they take To see other news, refer to Tekna scieific news page.
