A start-up has developed a vaccine that cuts methane emissions from cow burps, with plans for a commercial launch within three years.
Cattle produce methane as a byproduct of fermenting grasses and hay in their rumen, the first part of their digestive tract. in the world, largely driven by the burps and farts from the billion cattle farmed globally.
US company ArkeaBio has spent the past 18 months developing a vaccine to target methane-producing bacteria that live in a cow鈥檚 digestive system.
Advertisement
Cows given the prototype vaccine produced 12.9 per cent less methane over a period of 105 days, according to results from a 2023 trial seen by 快猫短视频,聽with no adverse side effects or disruption to growth rates.
The trial was conducted in partnership with Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the agricultural agency of the state of Texas. It involved 10 cows, with five acting as a control group and the other five cows receiving a vaccination in the neck, followed by a booster shot 56 days later. The results were presented at the American Society of Animal Science annual meeting in Calgary, Canada, this month.
A second live trial with 14 cows began in June this year and is still ongoing. Early results suggest a methane reduction of at least 13 per cent per cow, with the effects expected to last beyond three months, says at AgriLife.
快猫短视频s have been working for decades on the idea of a methane-busting vaccine for cows with little success, but dramatic cost reductions in biotechnology mean a vaccine is now a commercial possibility, says at ArkeaBio.
Methane emissions can already be reduced by changing a cow鈥檚 diet with feed additives that inhibit the activity of methanogens, the bacteria that produce the methane in a cow鈥檚 digestive system. But such additives are only useful for farmers who actively feed their cattle, rather than letting them graze on pasture.聽 Some pasture-grazed cattle can spend months in rangelands without any human contact.
at the University of Melbourne, Australia, says a methane vaccine 鈥渋s probably the only option that is really going to make an impact鈥� on emissions from grazing cattle. 鈥淚f the livestock industry has to make a serious contribution to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, a vaccine is an essential step forward,鈥� he says.
ArkeaBio鈥檚 prototype vaccine works by stimulating the cow鈥檚 immune system to produce antibodies in its saliva, which would target methane-producing microbes in the rumen.
The company is aiming to bring a vaccine to market that reduces methane emissions by 15 to 20 per cent per cow, sustaining that reduction for at least 3 to 6 months. South says the trial results are promising but more improvements are needed before the vaccine can launch. 鈥淲e鈥檙e comfortable with our mechanism of action,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he most important thing to do is show that the mechanism of action works, and then you can take the tools of biotechnology to just expand that performance.鈥�
Lamb says ArkeaBio鈥檚 results are the 鈥渇irst evidence鈥� a vaccination could have a meaningful impact on ruminant methane emissions. 鈥淭he rumen of a cow is always changing because it鈥檚 made up of bacteria and other microbes, and so the population is always changing,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 quite exciting to be able to see an actual decrease鈥� and that we are seeing it in a second experiment is even more exciting.鈥�
Initially, ArkeaBio plans to sell the methane reductions on the carbon credits market for $40 to $70 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. South predicts a commercial vaccine will be ready in three years and rolled out to millions of cattle within five years.
at Pennsylvania State University says ArkeaBio鈥檚 results seem 鈥減romising鈥�, adding that a 15 to 20 per cent reduction in methane emissions would be 鈥渟ubstantial鈥�. 鈥淭his is a good approach but there is a long way to be sure that it works, [that] it delivers consistent results over divergent production systems, [that] there is no adaptation of the rumen methanogens, [that] it is economically feasible, and [that] it has no side effects,鈥� he adds.
