From ... in Biology — Sep 5, 2024

What harm will Bill Gates’ anti-methane vaccine cause to animals and the environment?

A US start-up, ArkeaBio, has created a prototype vaccine that it claims cuts methane emissions by 13% in a first trial involving 10 cows.

The vaccine targets methane-producing bacteria in a cow’s digestive system.

“When it comes to climate change, a simple vaccine can be a powerful tool,” ArkeaBio says.

Climate cultists praise the development as significant because methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential much higher than carbon dioxide.

However, the very process they are trying to stop – the production of methane from methanogens in animals’ gut biome – is also the same microorganisms and process that has the potential to capture carbon dioxide and produce a renewable energy source – methane.

As usual, the climate change cultists are making no sense. Perhaps it is because it is Bill Gates backing the project and it has nothing to do with “climate change mitigation” and everything to do with vaccines. So how safe are these vaccines?

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ArkeaBio is a Boston-based company founded in 2021 with seed money from Bill Gates. Its anti-methane vaccine is aimed at reducing methane emissions from ruminant animals like cows, sheep, and goats.

The ArkeaBio anti-methane vaccine targets methane-producing microorganisms, known as methanogens, in the stomachs of ruminant animals. It stimulates the production of antibodies that bind to and neutralise these methanogens.

“By diminishing this methanogenic population, the vaccine effectively reduces enteric methane released during the cow’s digestive process,” Impakter wrote.

In a recent trial, the vaccine cut methane emissions by 13% in 10 cows. It’s not known when the vaccine may be put on the market. “The startup’s vaccine solution is still in an early stage and its long-term effects on cow health and productivity remain unknown,” Impakter said.

According to First Post, ArkeaBio plans to launch the vaccine commercially within three years, by 2027.

The company raised $26.5 million in venture capital funding, led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (“BEV”), a climate-focused fund founded by Bill Gates.

BEV previously funded ArkeaBio’s $12 million seed round. In May 2024, BEV led the Series A round and was joined by Grantham Foundation, AgriZeroNZ, Rabo Ventures, Overview Capital and The51 Food & AgTech Fund.

Announcing the new investments into its anti-methane vaccine, Chris Rivest, Chairman of the Board at ArkeaBio and partner at BEV, said, “Reducing methane emissions from the agricultural sector is one of the most pressing challenges in today’s fight against climate change.”

Adding, “ArkeaBio’s approach using innovative vaccine technologies will create effective and massively scalable solutions to reduce on-farm methane emissions, leaving them well-positioned to redefine the agricultural landscape in the years to come.”

Which sounds more like a threat.

What are Methanogens?

Methanogens are anaerobic archaea, microorganisms that thrive in environments devoid of oxygen. They are characterised by their ability to produce methane (CH₄) as a byproduct of their energy metabolism.

Methanogens are only found in oxygen-free environments. They depend on simple compounds for nutrition and have a slow growth rate. No known methanogens can grow without producing methane. They convert simple substrates into methane and carbon dioxide through a process known as methanogenesis, the last step of anoxic degradation of organic substances.

Methanogens are anaerobic archaea that play a critical role in the global carbon and energy cycle through methanogenesis, an anaerobic respiration that generates methane from simple substrates such as H₂ [hydrogen gas] and CO₂, formate, acetate and methylated compounds.

In these anaerobic habitats, different microorganisms degrade organic matter to produce H₂, CO₂, and acetate. In the absence of sulphate, oxidised metals and nitrite, methanogens consume these substrates, contributing in two different ways to the anaerobic food chain. First, methanogens catalyse the last step of the anoxic degradation of organic substances, producing methane, which is released to the atmosphere. Second, by maintaining an extremely low partial pressure of H₂, they keep the fermentative pathways energetically favourable (Hedderich and Whitman, 2006).
Methanogen, Science Direct

Anoxic degradation refers to the process of organic matter breakdown in the absence of molecular oxygen but with the presence of oxidised nitrogen species such as nitrate or nitrite. It is a controlled process that is often used in wastewater treatment.

Methanogenesis is also the final stage in the anaerobic food chain. The anaerobic food chain differs from anoxic degradation in that it is a natural process occurring in environments devoid of free molecular oxygen and nitrate ions.

According to Flanders Health, “Methane is the most reduced organic compound. The production of methane is the final step of the anaerobic food chain. Methane-forming bacteria are responsible for this step, and therefore they are of critical importance for the success of the anaerobic food chain.”

The anaerobic food chain, or anaerobic digestion, involves a sequence of microbial processes where one group of microorganisms degrades substrates, producing compounds that are then utilised by another group of microorganisms. This chain-like process allows for the efficient degradation of complex organic matter.

The stages of the anaerobic food chain process are:

Hydrolysis: Primary degraders break down complex organic matter into simpler compounds.
Fermentation: Hydrolytic bacteria convert these compounds into monomers like sugars.
Acidogenesis: Microorganisms like propionate-oxidising bacteria and syntrophic butyrate-oxidising bacteria degrade these monomers into short-chain fatty acids (“SCFAs”) like propionate and butyrate.
Methanogenesis: Methanogens convert SCFAs into methane and carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Methanogens are not only found in the gut of ruminants, they are widely distributed and can be found in various anaerobic environments such as swamps, marshes, hot springs, sewage-treatment works and anaerobic environments with extreme salinity, temperature and pH.

If Bill Gates vaccinated cows and other animals to kill these slow-growing microorganisms, what would the impact be if the vaccine was shed into the environment? Why are climate change cultists not concerned about the environmental impacts of their anti-methane vaccines?

What Effect Will Killing Gut Bacteria Have On Cows?

In the digestive system of ruminants, such as cows, methanogens play a crucial role in the breakdown of plant material. They have a symbiotic relationship with other microbes in the rumen, such as bacteria and protists. They work together to break down complex plant material, releasing volatile fatty acids and other compounds that are absorbed by the cow.

The digestive tract of ruminants contains four major parts: rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum.

The majority of anaerobic microbes assisting the cellulose breakdown occupy the rumen and initiate the fermentation process. The animal absorbs the fatty acids, vitamins and nutrient content on passing the partially digested food from the rumen to the omasum. This decreases the pH level and initiates the release of enzymes for further breakdown of the food which later passes to the abomasum to absorb remaining nutrients before excretion.
Methanogens in digestive tract of ruminants, HandWiki via EncycloReader

The rumen microbiome, including methanogens, is characterised by high diversity and a delicate balance. If methanogens in a cow’s gut are killed, it would significantly alter the rumen fermentation process, and impact nutrient uptake and digestion as it would lead to lead to changes in the population dynamics of other microorganisms in the rumen.

The altered rumen ecosystem and fermentation patterns will have implications for a cow’s health. It may result in digestive disturbances, changes in feeding and digestion, and an increased production of other gases, such as hydrogen (H₂) or CO₂, could affect rumen pH and animal well-being. Additionally, shifts in the balance of beneficial and potentially pathogenic microorganisms will affect a cow’s health. For example, protozoa, which are sensitive to methanogen presence, might thrive.

In 2017, a review was published providing a brief overview of the rumen methanogens and an appraisal of most of the anti-methanogenic compounds and substances. The paper stated:

Previous research has helped reach a sound understanding and appreciation of the diversity of rumen methanogens in general. However, variations among individual animals are ubiquitous, and the underpinning of such variation is poorly understood.

The relationship between animal performance and diversity/population dynamics also remains to be determined and elucidated.

Additionally, methanogens associated with protozoa and fungi continue to be elusive, so does their symbiotic relationship with these two groups of eukaryotes and phages. Moreover, it is unknown to what extent phages, both bacterial and archaeal, affect the population dynamics of rumen bacteria and methanogens and thus CH₄ emission.
Patra A, Park T, Kim M, Yu Z. Rumen methanogens and mitigation of methane emission by anti-methanogenic compounds and substances. J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2017 Jan 26;8:13. doi: 10.1186/s40104-017-0145-9. PMID: 28149512; PMCID: PMC5270371.

It doesn’t seem like they have studied the impact on the health of cattle when they force an imbalance on the gut microbiome through anti-methane vaccines.

There has, however, been more research on the human gut biome.

We know that our gut biome or gut microbiome – a complex community of microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses – has an important role to play in our overall health, preventing illness, regulating immune responses, influencing our mood, cognitive function and behaviour, affecting our nervous system and our endocrine system, and even playing a role in our intelligence.

We also know that an imbalance of the normal gut microbiota, or dysbiosis, has been directly associated with various diseases, including infections, cardiovascular risk, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel disease (“IBD”), obesity, type 2 diabetes and atopy.

Other conditions that may be indirectly related to gut dysbiosis include:

This is in addition to the common symptoms of gut dysbiosis such as flatulence, bloated stomach, poor digestion, lower abdominal pain, diarrhoea, constipation and low energy levels.

Highlighting the importance of methanogens in our gut biome, a 2021 paper published in Microbial Ecology stated, “Any dysbiosis affecting methanogens might impact human health. Thus, the monitoring of methanogens may be used as a bio-indicator of dysbiosis.”

The ingredients or details of methods of action of ArkeaBio’s vaccine have not been disclosed. An internet search did not return any results on specific studies or trials conducted on ArkeaBio’s anti-methanogen vaccine to assess its potential harm to animals.

At this point, we are reminded of a threat issued by Gates last year. You can either fix cows to stop their emissions, or you can make beef without the cow, he said. He didn’t detail how he intended to “fix cows” nor did he mention the ill effects in attempting to do so.

A quick internet search revealed a 2020 review titled ‘Are Vaccines the Solution for Methane Emissions from Ruminants?’ which evaluated the different “promising” vaccine strategies – concluding “it is complicated to evaluate the real effectiveness” of anti-methane vaccines – but did not assess the safety of the vaccines, or the adverse effects or harm caused to animals by them.

The internet search also returned two news articles in May (Axios and Bloomberg) publicising Arkeabio’s vaccine development funding. The articles focused on the potential benefits of reducing methane emissions from livestock in the context of “climate change” but didn’t venture to mention safety issues or show any concerns for harm to the animals.

Why do climate change cultists think that cows will not suffer the same health problems from gut dysbiosis caused by anti-methane vaccines? Why do they completely ignore the potential negative health impacts? Why are they not concerned for the welfare of the animals?

The Hypocrisy of the Climate Change Cult

Last year, we published an article by Pat Cummins, a veteran of the Irish dairy industry, explaining that biogenic methane has a short lifespan and is part of the natural carbon cycle. Cummins said:

The [corporate] media consistently portray cows as pumping additional methane into the atmosphere. This is like saying every shower of rain that falls is new water and adds to the volume of water in the sea and in time we are all going to drown.

Ruminant livestock methane is virtually irrelevant as a greenhouse gas. No cow, sheep or goat has ever managed to create carbon from nothing. Methane from cattle is part of the biogenic carbon cycle which has been around since life began.
We shouldn’t demonise cows for burping and farting; we should be thanking them, The Exposé, 2 June 2023

However, apart from the misinformation and lies the climate change cult disseminates about methane, the potential applications of methanogens – that you would have thought climate change cultists would be chomping at the bit to implement – show their hypocrisy. It is this display of hypocrisy we want to focus on in this section.

Methanogens’ major end product is biogas. And so, methanogens have a potential application in biogas production, which can be used as a renewable energy source.

Another potential application for methanogens is electromethanogenesis, a form of electrofuel production where methane is produced by direct biological conversion of electrical current and carbon dioxide. The methane produced could then be used as a biofuel.

A 2018 paper explored the potential applications of methanogens in biotechnological applications, including electromethanogenesis:

Since fossil sources for fuel and platform chemicals will become limited in the near future, it is important to develop new concepts for energy supply and production of basic reagents for chemical industry.

One alternative to crude oil and fossil natural gas could be the biological conversion of CO₂ or small organic molecules to methane via methanogenic archaea. This process has been known from biogas plants, but recently, new insights into the methanogenic metabolism, technical optimisations and new technology combinations were gained, which would allow moving beyond the mere conversion of biomass.

In biogas plants, steps have been undertaken to increase yield and purity of the biogas, such as addition of hydrogen or metal granulate. Furthermore, the integration of electrodes led to the development of microbial electrosynthesis (MES). The idea behind this technique is to use CO₂ and electrical power to generate methane via the microbial metabolism.
Enzmann F, Mayer F, Rother M, Holtmann D. Methanogens: biochemical background and biotechnological applications. AMB Express. 2018 Jan 4;8(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s13568-017-0531-x. PMID: 29302756; PMCID: PMC5754280.

And, ten years before, a 2009 paper published in American Chemical Society Publications noted that as well as a renewable energy source, electromethanogenesis may also be a useful method for the capture of carbon dioxide.

For climate change cultists, electromethanogenesis appears to offer a unique combination of carbon capture, utilisation and renewable energy integration, making it a valuable method for mitigating climate change and promoting sustainable development. An artificial intelligence (“AI”) summary (using Bing Copilot) of Wikipedia’s page on the process stated:

Electromethanogenesis is a promising method for capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) due to several key benefits:

1. Carbon Capture and Conversion: This process directly converts CO₂ into methane (CH₄) using electrical current and microorganisms. This not only captures CO₂ but also produces methane, which can be used as a renewable biofuel.

2. Renewable Energy Storage: The methane produced can be stored and used as an energy source, providing a way to store excess renewable energy generated from sources like wind or solar.

3. Air Purification: By capturing CO₂, electromethanogenesis can help reduce greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, contributing to air purification and climate change mitigation.

4. Sustainable and Efficient: This method leverages microbial electrosynthesis, which is a sustainable and efficient way to produce methane. It uses biocathodes, which are typically made from inexpensive materials like carbon or graphite.

Overall, electromethanogenesis offers a dual benefit of reducing CO₂ emissions and producing a useful energy source, making it a valuable technology in the fight against climate change.

Yet they are planning to vaccinate livestock to kill the methanogens that capture the CO₂ and produce the methane that would then be used as a renewable energy source.

The climate change clowns have no idea what they are doing.

On hearing about ArkeaBio’s anti-methane vaccine, Justin Tupper, president of the United States Cattlemen’s Association, said he doesn’t believe that cow burps are a major contributor of greenhouse gases and called the notion of vaccinating cattle to reduce methane “laughable.” We agree.

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