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    Home > Food News > Food Articles > Change the gut bacteria to reduce methane emissions

    Change the gut bacteria to reduce methane emissions

    • Last Update: 2021-02-25
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    cows are the main driver of global warming.
    researchers suggest in a paper published in Science Advances that cows can be selectively bred to halve their impact on global warming.
    livestock accounts for 14.5 per cent of global emissions, much of it from beef and milk production. This is mainly due to the large amount of methane emitted by bloated, burping cattle. Researchers have previously considered adjusting their diets to reduce these emissions, such as adding seaweed.
    may now have a long-term solution, as a core gut microbiome seems to play a key role in how much methane cattle produce. These bacteria are closely related to the genetic make-up of cows, suggesting that the drivers of methane emissions are passed down from generation to generation.
    Wallace, of the University of Aberdeen in the UK, who led the study, said that because of genetic possibilities, this information should be used to breed animals with reduced methane emissions and increased productivity. For example, the microbiome of cattle can be sequenced and individuals with high methane emissions can be selectively eliminated. Wallace says eliminating the microbiome could reduce methane emissions by 50 percent.
    , however, the process will take decades, and humans need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions faster. One possible faster approach would be to see if specific genes work -- Wallace and colleagues studied genetic variants called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rather than genes and knocked them out without harm.
    idea is for young cattle to change their microbiomes through probiotics to reduce methane emissions, said Wallace, a professor at the University of Washington. "It's not as hard as you think to vaccinate small animals."
    "a better understanding of the genetic characteristics of low methane emissions of ruminant livestock, as well as any trade-offs with other materiality traits, is definitely a key issue." James Osman, of the National Farmers' Union, said.
    researchers looked at 1,016 cows on seven farms in Europe over a four-year period and found that at least half of all cows had the same 500 gut microbes. Genetic analysis found that, although small, many of them were hereditary and played a key role in determining methane emissions
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