Can a shot with anything other than a bullet stifle a cow’s methane burps? If the shot is a vaccine, quite possibly. ArkeaBio of Calgary, Alberta — one of 13 remaining competitors in the Trudeau government’s $12-million Agricultural Methane Reduction Challenge — is working on a vaccine to cut the methane emitted from ruminant animals.
The feds launched the contest last November to be seen as doing something towards Canada’s pledge to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions 45 % below 2005 levels by 2030. Methane is a carbon-based molecule like carbon dioxide, but bonded with hydrogen instead of oxygen. Methane is reputed to be a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Canada generates less than 2 % of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and Canadian agriculture accounts for only 10 % of the Canadian total.
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