US-based ArkeaBio is pushing an experimental “vaccine” for cattle that forces the animal’s immune system to produce antibodies against its own rumen methanogens – microbes essential to normal digestion – with early trials claiming only modest 10–15% methane cuts.
The company has explicitly treated New Zealand as its first commercial testing ground, targeting regulatory submission in 2027 with rollout planned for 2028.
The publicly funded AgriZeroNZ partnership has called a methane vaccine the “holy grail” and led ArkeaBio’s $15 million Series A2 round in September, with support from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Its patent filings covered nucleic-acid and mRNA constructs encoding antigens such as McrA.
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