Friday, June 9, 2017

CRISPR CRITTERS? CANADA AIMS FOR LOW METHANE COWS

Take  a  deep  breath. 
The Genome Canada project is gathering data on how much methane comes out of either end of  that bovine biogas generator,  the cow.
Wired  reports:
It’s not easy to gather data on how much methane a cow actually produces: You can stick a cow in a closed chamber for a few days, but that’s expensive and interrupts the cow’s daily routine. Some researchers use small backpacks that wrap around a cow’s head and measure how much methane it exhales. Miglior’s lab in Ontario—along with the other farms involved in the project—use a third option: a machine that puts out little cow snacks. Cows like Number 1995 stop by a couple of times a day to take a nibble. When the animal sticks its head in the machine, a vent sucks up a sample of its breath and measures the amount of methane and carbon dioxide.
If  the  genetic basis of  cattle breed emissions can be defined, Canada hopes to take a whack out of  the carbon footprint  of everything from yogurt to tournedos Rossini by  propagating low CH4 genes among the herds of walking windbags roaming Ontario's pastures & Calgary's climate blogs.
It's a lumberjack - is that  OK?

Nothing seems sacred anymore in the  Great White  North -- Wired also  notes Ottowa, for reasons I'd rather not  know, has commenced sequencing the beaver genome.