New Zealand scientists work on methane ‘vaccine’ to reduce cow flatulence, livestock emissions

Researchers at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre say they are ‘tantalisingly close’ to an injection that reduces methane in the gut

Such a vaccine would have an immediate impact on global greenhouse gas emissions if administered across some of the estimated 1.5 billion cows worldwide

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Young calves wait to have their gas emissions monitored at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre in Palmerston North. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:11am, 27 Oct 2021Updated: 9:46pm, 27 Oct 2021

Tucked away in rural New Zealand, a multimillion dollar research facility is working to slash the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by farm animals – saving the world one belch at a time.

Cattle and sheep are kept in perspex pens for two days per session as scientists carefully analyse every emission that emerges from them at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.

“I never thought I’d make my living measuring the gas that comes out of animals’ breath,” the facility’s director Harry Clark said.

Harry Clark, director of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre. Photo: AFP

The UN says agricultural livestock accounts for 14.5 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity and the centre – regarded as a world leader in livestock emissions research – is hopeful it can play a key role in tackling the problem.

How authorities ended up funding the project to the tune of NZ$10 million (US$7 million) a year is a story of economic necessity and changing attitudes to climate change.