02/07/08 Cattle belching

A discovery in the animal world may make the world a safer place for all of us. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back right after this to tell you about it. Ruminant animals belch; it's just a fact of life. But, when they belch they expel methane gas which scientists have told us is a big contributor to global warming. Methane, it has been reported, is 20 times more effective than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. A research team in Japan at the Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine have discovered a method of stopping cows from emitting methane when they belch. The researchers found by feeding cysteine, an amino acid, to dairy cows it drastically cut the methane the cows generate from their rumens. At first the team found that dairy cows poisoned by feeding on grass highly fertilized with commercial fertilizer consume large amounts of nitrates, but produce only traces of methane. By adding cysteine to those cows diets the methane was reduced and also helped prevent the cows from being poisoned. The research team has obtained a patent for this technique in Japan, the United States, Australia and two other countries. You know animal methane is natural just like the large amounts of methane from the world's natural swamplands. Somehow, I just can't make myself worry about something so natural. But for you who do worry, the world could be safer by about five percent since that's how much methane animal belching contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. I'm Jeff Keane. McClatchy News Service