Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 1 october 2018

Gassy cows are bad for the planet; could seaweed diet help?

By PATRICK WHITTLE lier this year that methane
Associated Press emissions were reduced by
The smelly reality is that 24 to 58 percent in a dozen
cows will always pass gas. cows that ate one variety
But if farmers had more of the seaweed, depend-
access to seaweed, cow ing on dose.
flatulence might just stink a The seaweed constituted
little less for the planet. only a small percentage
That’s the thesis of a New of the cows’ food, but re-
England-based aquacul- searchers found that the
ture company which is dent it could make in emis-
launching a drive to be- sions would be significant if
come the worldwide lead- it were available to farmers.
er in an emerging effort to The methane from cow’s
thwart climate change by burps makes up 25 percent
feeding seaweed to cows. of methane emissions in the
The concept of reducing U.S., according to the uni-
livestock emissions by using versity. The seaweed inter-
seaweed as feed is the sub- rupts the bacterial process
ject of ongoing scientific of producing methane in
research, and early results their guts, Goldman said.
are promising. University of Challenges remain, said
California researchers have Ermias Kebreab, a profes-
found that cows that eat sor of animal science at UC
seaweed appear to emit Davis. The seaweed needs
less methane, a green- more tests to determine if
house gas that contributes In this Sept. 27, 2018, photo provided by Green Grazing, Australis Aquaculture employee Khanh it would impact meat and
to global warming, when Huynh checks on seaweed cultures, near Ninh Hai, Vietnam. milk quality from the ani-
they belch and pass gas. Associated Press mals. The challenge of pro-
But one of the big chal- setts, which is in the midst of cial scale in two years, said is to cultivate this, and ac- ducing enough of the sea-
lenges to implementing the research at facilities in Viet- Josh Goldman, the com- celerate scaling of this kind weed is staggering, lead-
seaweed solution is get- nam and Portugal that is pany’s chief executive of- of seaweed.” ing Goldman to call it an
ting enough of the stuff to part of its push to become ficer. The type of algae in ques- “aquatic moonshot.” He
farmers, and the kind of the first farm to produce “If you could feed all the tion is a red seaweed estimated that the amount
seaweed that has shown the seaweed at commer- cows this seaweed, it called Asparagopsis, and of seaweed needed to
results in cows isn’t com- cial scale. The company would be the equivalent it grows wild in many parts reach every cattle op-
mercially farmed. calls the effort “Greener of taking all these cars off of the world. Researchers eration would be greater
Enter Australis Aquaculture Grazing” and it expects to the road,” Goldman said. from the University of Cali- than the amount presently
of Greenfield, Massachu- be operating at commer- “Greener Grazing’s mission fornia, Davis, found ear- farmed in the world.q

Risk of Ebola’s spread from Congo now ‘very high,’ WHO says

By CARA ANNA gencies chief, Peter Sala- of those infected, including
Associated Press ma, to warn that insecu- the dead.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — rity, public defiance about Some patients have left
The risk of the deadly Ebola vaccinations and politi- health facilities to seek al-
virus spreading from Congo cians fanning fears ahead ternative care, WHO said
is now “very high” after two of elections in December in a statement on Thurs-
confirmed cases were dis- could create a “perfect day. One infected person
covered near the Uganda storm” leading the out- moved into a “red zone”
border, the World Health break to spread. where security is poor
Organization says. As of Friday the outbreak and carrying out Ebola re-
The outbreak of the hemor- had 124 confirmed Ebola sponse efforts is “extremely
rhagic fever in northeast- cases, including 71 deaths. difficult, if not impossible.”
In this Sunday, Sept 9, 2018 file photo, health workers walk with ern Congo is now larger The previous outbreak in The virus moved near the
a boy suspected of having the Ebola virus at an Ebola treatment than the previous one in Congo’s Equateur prov- Uganda border after a
centre in Beni, Eastern Congo. the northwest and more ince, declared over just a woman who had partici-
Associated Press complicated to contain week before the current pated in burials of Ebola
because of a dense, highly one was announced, had victims refused a vacci-
mobile population and a 54 confirmed cases, includ- nation in Beni and disap-
rebel threat so serious that ing 33 deaths. peared, local officials have
some health workers say This is the first time an Ebola said.
they’re operating in a war outbreak has occurred in She died on Sept. 20 at a
zone. this part of Congo, affect- hospital in Tshomia on Lake
A deadly attack in Beni, the ing the provinces of North Albert, which separates the
heart of Ebola containment Kivu and Ituri. Health work- countries.
efforts, forced the work to ers have had to combat The second confirmed Eb-
be suspended for two days various rumors and fears ola case in Tshomia was
earlier in the week. about the disease, which the woman’s partner, WHO
That led the WHO’s emer- spreads via the body fluids said.q