After eight years searching, Kiwi scientists have finally made a discovery which will likely lead to a breakthrough in mitigating livestock gas emissions.

One of the most vexing issues facing agriculture’s inclusion in an emissions trading scheme – and the cost to farmers – has been that to date few mitigation technologies are at hand.

However, the latest findings by a team of AgResearch scientists – funded by the Pastoral Greenhouse gas Research Consortium (PGgRSC) – are expected to lead to the development of tools that ease the emissions burden of farmed animals.

They have successfully mapped the genetic information of one of the microbes found in the digestive tracts of ruminant animals responsible for methane production.

This is expected to accelerate work altering methane generation through vaccinations or other pharmaceutical interventions.

The findings of Dr Graeme Attwood and his team of researchers were recently published in noted science journal PLOS One.

“Methane emissions from sheep and cattle have 21times the impact of carbon dioxide and are a key target of research aiming to reduce global greenhouse gases,” he says. “...this opens the door for mitigation options.”

The work is part of a larger comprehensive programme funded by PGgRC, a livestock-government partnership, which has been researching solutions for methane and nitrous oxide since 2002.