Scientists develop breakthrough vaccine that could transform how we produce meat and dairy: 'There's scientific literature that suggests it can work'

Efforts to curb the methane emissions from cows and other ruminant livestock are ongoing, but one group believes a vaccine may be the answer and is investing in a three-year study to explore its potential.

Cows love to munch on grass, but their digestive process ferments the feed in their rumen — one of their four stomach compartments — and releases planet-warming methane as a byproduct. 

Researchers at the United Kingdom's Pirbright Institute — a virology lab that focuses on livestock — have launched a three-year study to explore using a vaccine to curb this output, CNN reported. They believe that the science behind the concept is sound. 

"There's been significant investment in different countries in trying to develop this unusual vaccine, in that it's not necessarily for the benefit of the animal, but it's for the benefit of the emissions that the animal might produce," said John Hammond, director of research at the institute, per CNN. 

"There's no product, but there's scientific literature that suggests it can work and will work," he added.  

Although it doesn't make headlines as frequently as it should, methane is approximately 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide when viewed over 20 years. 

Since the Industrial Revolution, the gas has been responsible for nearly 30% of the rise in global temperatures, stemming from a variety of sources, including oil and gas systems, landfills, and digestive fermentation in livestock. 

Of those, livestock contributes nearly one-third of all human-related methane emissions, making it a prime target for scientists looking to tackle the issue of rising global temperatures. 

There have been other efforts to help curb these gassy cow "burps," such as monitoring and customizing diets to reduce emissions and tweaking microbiomes to reduce or eliminate the problem.

The Pirbright Institute's study has scored $9.4 million in funding from the Bezos Earth Fund and involves other international organizations, including AgResearch in New Zealand and the U.K.'s Royal Veterinary College, per CNN. 

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Joseph McFadden, an associate professor of dairy cattle biology at Cornell University who's not involved in the study, told the outlet that a vaccine against methane emissions would be a "sort of holy grail" due to its potential to work with just one dose early on. 

"Best-case scenario, it'll be a single-dose vaccine that an animal would receive relatively early in life that continues to have an effect," Hammond added. 

"The target is an absolute minimum of 30% reduction in methane emissions," he said.

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