A species of fungus found in soil can be fed to cows to cut down on the potent greenhouse gas methane in their burps.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a fungal soup,鈥� says at Roam Agricultural, a startup in Australia aiming to grow large amounts of the fungus in bioreactors. Instead of feeding cows the fungi directly, however, the company plans to extract the methane-reducing compound they make 鈥� called bromoform 鈥� and add it to feed as an edible powder.
Research shows adding bromoform to feed can from cows and other ruminant livestock by disrupting bacteria in the animals鈥� stomachs. Other companies are already producing this compound synthetically or by cultivating seaweed that makes it. But Callaghan says his company鈥檚 fungal approach could be more efficient.
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The soil fungus was identified by researchers at the Australia-based soil carbon startup Loam Bio, which has assembled a large library of fungi collected from soil. Experts searched this database for fungi that had the same genes as those involved in bromoform production in seaweed. Then they tested the winning fungi to determine just how much bromoform they could make.
The researchers the most productive fungus was a strain of Curvularia inaequalis collected from New South Wales.
When the raw liquid fungal extract was fed to cows directly in the morning and afternoon, methane levels dropped by around 60 per cent; when bromoform was extracted from the fungi and fed to cows as a dry powder in a single daily serving, methane was reduced by around 30 per cent over a 24-hour period, says Callaghan, citing unpublished results reviewed by New 杏吧原创.
While the raw extract had a greater effect, Callaghan says adding liquid with living fungi to feed isn鈥檛 practical. Still, he says it could be cheaper to produce bromoform using the fungi than cultivating large amounts of seaweed or making it in chemical factories. To cultivate it at large scales, the researchers spun off a new company, Roam Agricultural, from Loam Bio.
at the University of California, Davis, who isn鈥檛 involved with the company, says the fungal approach could be a promising alternative source of bromoform. But its use will depend on the preferences of farmers and consumers. 鈥淲ould people be ok to get the bromoform from fungi or synthetically? I don鈥檛 know,鈥� he says.
