Wayne McNee: AgriZeroNZ CEO on the development of a vaccine to reduce methane emissions from animals

A million dollar boost is on its way towards methane vaccine research.  

Scientists are wanting to develop antibodies that reduce methane emissions from animals. 

AgriZeroNZ and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre are providing $13.5 million to Lucidome Bio to develop the treatment.  

AgriZeroNZ chief executive Wayne McNee told Mike Hosking they're on a path to eventually get there. 

He says they've also invested in a UK company, which has already proven it's possible. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And in the climate battle. This is good news. I
think we've got progress in the area of what they
call a methane vaccine. Methone vaccine apparently is the holy
grail for farming. Scientists are basically wanting to develop antibodies
that reduce methane emissions from animals. AGRA zero New Zealand's
chief executive Wayne mcnee's with us. Wayne, very good morning
to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
On a scale of one to ten in excitement terms, ten,
you're fizzing. One. You couldn't give a monkey's where are
we at on that scale?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You asked me this last time. I think this is
I'm pretty fizzing about this one. Actually, I reckon I'm
getting up round this sort of seven or eight. This
is a really exciting opportunity to try and develop a
methane vaccine.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
So the thirteen and a half million we're talking about
is that on a path to a result we know
eventually will happen, or on a path we just don't
quite know where we're going yet.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Look, I think we're on a path to knowing we
will eventually get there. Another company we've invested in called
Arka Bio in the United States is proven you can
make a methane vaccine. Still a lot of work to
do there, but you know it can be done. So
the team here, we're investing to develop a bigger team
with egg Research. Bring the team together with other researchers

(01:06):
and push hard to get a product that farmers will
be able to use.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
That sort of answers my question. Are you in competition
with these other people? How many other people are there?
And are you collaborating?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
There's only two vaccine companies and we've invested in both
of them, so yeah, we are looking for them to collaborate.
But we're investing in a portfolio of possible solutions for farmers,
partly because some of them may not work, and also
to give farmers choices so that when these things come
to market, you know they don't have to do just
one thing.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
When you get there, How commercial does it become how quickly?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah? And vaccines a pretty easy to scale. So if
they can make one that works and what we'd be
looking for as a twenty to twenty five percent reduction
over about six months with a single vaccine shot, they're
pretty easy to scale. I mean we've seen that recently,
haven't we you can make vaccines quite easily and quite cheaply,
so you know, once we've got it, it should be
quite easy to make.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
So if you can reduce methane by twenty five percent,
what does that do to the climate debate?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
That makes a huge difference. It would be massive if
we can get there with a vaccine, because it's relatively
easy for farmers to administer vaccines already widely used in
animal health, and this could be you know, for New Zealand,
it would be huge because we're a pastoral farming system,
but worldwide, eighty percent of remnants grays on pasture, so
it would be a massive breakthrough.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
But when you look at the politics and the yankst
around the ets and all of that sort of thing,
if you and our biggest dealer is methane emissions, if
you can do twenty five percent on the farm, that's
a government re thinking their entire approach, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
We've got to get yet there yet, But yes.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
I mean yeah, but with one you told me we're physics.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Our customers from New Zealand are asking for reductions of
thirty percent of methane by twenty thirty, so it's a
big customer ball here from the likes of Nestlie to
known McDonald's others. So this is this is hopefully part
of the solution for that. There's still a way to go,
though I am passing it as an exciting opportunity.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, we'll get you back on and I'll ask you
the same question for the third time to see how
we go. So you can't make me down for consistency,
Wayne McNee Who's where do you go from visiting well way?
That's that's a that's a very good point. For more
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