Poor fishing due to wet winters, which in turn are due to global warming, could be caused in part by sheep and cows breaking wind, say NZ scientists.
The scientists are researching the problem for, according to a report on Wired News New Zealand has 40 million sheep and 10 million cows, and some 43% of greenhouse gases come from this source. In France 15% of emissions are from cows.
The gas produced by the sheep and cows is methane, which is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and the scientists are trying to stop its production in the beasts in order to slow down the greenhouse effect.
Microbes produce the gas in the animals’ stomachs and tests have shown that they can safely live without the microbes. Lambs born and raised in a sterile environment, without the microbes, have grown healthily. Now scientists have to find a way of safely removing the microbes from farmed sheep.
Besides a reduction in the greenhouse effect another benefit is that removing the microbes could improve the performance of the animals resulting in increased production of milk, wool and meat.
