September 03, 2019

Reducing Methane From Animals

2 minutes

Methane emissions from ruminant livestock are currently estimated to be more than 100 million tons each year and, after rice agriculture, represent the biggest human-initiated methane source. Given that fact, there is widespread encouragement for people to reduce their consumption of meat in order to reduce the amount of the potent greenhouse gas going into the atmosphere.

But an additional strategy to

lower global methane emissions is to actually reduce the amount of methane

produced by each animal. To that end,

researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand have now identified new

processes that control methane production in the stomachs of sheep and similar

animals like cattle and deer.

They determined the specific

microbes and enzymes that control the supply of hydrogen, which is the main

energy source for methane producing microbes, known as methanogens. Their work is focused on the development of

small molecule inhibitors and vaccines to specifically target the production of

methane by methanogens. By reducing the

supply of hydrogen to methanogens, it is possible to reduce animal methane

emissions.

The research involved studying two

types of sheep – those producing large amounts of methane and those producing

less. They found that the most active

hydrogen-consuming microbes differed between the sheep. Specifically, in the low methane emitting

sheep, hydrogen consuming bacteria dominated over methanogens.

Ultimately, a strategy might emerge to introduce feed supplements that encourage non-methane producers to out-compete methanogens. Controlling the supply of hydrogen to the methanogens will lead to reduced methane emissions.

Having low-emission cattle would

definitely help reduce the impact of agriculture on the climate.

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Web Links

Scientists discover processes to lower methane emissions from animals

Photo, posted April 7, 2017, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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