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Last Updated:  Thursday, 13 March, 2003, 16:23 GMT
Fish to fight animal belches
Sidekick - fish-smelling meat and milk?
Adding a touch of fish oil to farmyard animals' food could cut the damaging gases they emit with their noxious belches.

Belgian scientists have discovered that giving animals fishy fodder reduces the amount of methane they release by as much as 40% - without giving them indigestion - the New Scientist magazine reports.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, belches from farmyard animals account for around 22% of global emissions of methane.

A fishy diet could not only bring this down, but also appears to have beneficial effects for the animals themselves, and in turn the humans who eat them.

Veerle Fievez and her colleagues from Ghent University found sheep put on the diet may end up with less artery blocking cholesterol than their non-fish eating counterparts.

However, there are some fears that the diet may mean milk and meat develops a slight smell of fish.

New Zealand's belching animals
07 May 02 |  Science/Nature

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