Farmers Stop Using Mandated Methane-Reducing Additive Bovaer After Cows Drop Dead in Denmark, Norway

Denmark and Norway are receiving hundreds of reports from farmers after cows are dying, collapsing, and becoming ill with high fevers, diarrhea, loss of appetite, bloat, lethargy, mastitis, miscarriages, and a 20-40% drop in milk yield. The reports come just a month after the majority of Danish farms started using Bovaer, a feed additive that is now required for farms with more than 50 cows to reduce methane emissions. A Bovaer spokesperson told the BBC last week that all claims are being investigated, but stated that previous claims have not indicated that Bovaer is a contributing factor to the adverse health effects for cattle.

Danish journalist Kent Nielsen has obtained videos and comments from several farmers detailing the One report on X comes from a Danish farmer who said 31 of his 200 cows are sick after he began giving Bovaer to his livestock. Videos are also being shared of Danish farmers dragging cows that have collapsed, and the farmer states that it is because of Bovaer.

Nielsen translated a statement from a Danish butcher, stating, “As a small butcher, today I slaughtered a cow that had received half the amount of Bovaer that the government wants. The animal smelled bad during slaughter, and later in the cold storage room, there was an unpleasant smell; freshly slaughtered animals do not normally smell like…”

Norway has temporarily halted the use of Bovaer as a precaution, but  Johnny Ødegård, who oversees the raw milk supply as the director of Norsk Melkeråvare, said, “So far, no negative effects of Bovaer have been observed in Norway.” Denmark has not made any moves to halt the use of Bovaer following recent reports, but Nielsen has reported on his X account that the use of the additive is illegal under the Working Environmental Group regulation because no inhalation data exists. An X post shared by Nielsen translated the Danish law that states, “If inhalation data is not available → the risk assessment cannot be conducted → and therefore the substance must not be used.”

Franciska Rosenkilde, the political leader of the Alternative party in Denmark, denounced the use of the additive in Danish agriculture. Her statement translates to, “Bovaer should never have been introduced in Danish agriculture as part of the green tripartite agreement. It has nothing to do with climate action and is closer to animal cruelty.” She said the emission problem should be solved with fewer cows to ensure they are able to graze and eat grass.

The primary ingredient in Bovaer is 3-Nitrooxypropanol, and some estimates say it can reduce methane emissions by up to 30%. It has been approved as safe by the UK, EU, and US regulators. The safety guideline sheet requires users to have personal protective gear, including gloves, eye protection, face protection, and hearing protection. 10% of Bovaer’s mixture “consists of component(s) of unknown acute oral or dermal toxicity,” according to the safety precautions sheet.

People are advised by the safety precautions to seek medical assistance immediately if Bovaer makes contact with the skin or eyes, or if it is inhaled or ingested. First aid providers shall take no action involving personal risk “without suitable training.” The FDA approval letter states that the primary ingredient, 3-Nitrooxypropanol, may damage male fertility and reproductive organs, as reported by Jefferey Jaxen on The HighWire in December of last year.

The FDA letter also states, “Based on the information provided in your letter, Bovaer® 10 is an article (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of an animal, and therefore it is a drug.” The letter states that the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) was considering whether refraining from enforcement of drug requirements would be appropriate, including “new animal drug approval, pharmaceutical current Good Manufacturing Practice, adverse event reporting, labeling, drug establishment registration, and drug product listing.”

Further down, the FDA letter states, “Although Bovaer® 10 is an unapproved drug, at this time we do not intend to initiate enforcement action with respect to the drug requirements listed above for Elanco’s marketing Bovaer® 10.”

The FDA approved Bovaer for use in the United States in May 2024. By July of 2024, there were 150 US farms enrolled to use the drug, but no updated numbers have been provided. Approximately 528,000 cows globally are receiving Bovaer.

The Beef Initiative calls for a decentralized, local meat supply by connecting consumers directly to the farmer. They reported that less than 1% of the $428 billion allocated to programs like the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) in the 2018 farm bill goes to regenerative practices. The Beef Initiative wrote, “Elanco’s SEC filings show $100/ton carbon credits for feed additives like Bovaer, which cut methane, but do nothing for soil or nutrition. We’re paying for carbon optics, not food sovereignty.”

Jaxen reported for The HighWire about the estimates of methane emissions from livestock farming that originally came from the 2006 UN report called Livestock’s Long Shadow. The report concluded that 18% of the global warming effect is coming from the livestock industry. Jaxen then presented a study led by Frank Mitloehner, who concluded that the livestock industry accounts for less than 3% of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

Jaxen explained that one of the authors of the UN report responded to Mitloehner’s report, stating, “I must say honestly that he has a point – we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn’t do the same thing with transport.” Jaxen further broke down the implications – that the UN authors factored in every aspect of farming when calculating the emissions from livestock, including transportation to and from the field, to the processing plant, manure, the cost of clearing the field, and more. Meanwhile, Jaxen said, when calculating the GHG contributions from the transportation industry, they only looked at tailpipe emissions. “Totally unfair calculation that was thrown on the backs of livestock,” Jaxen said. “This is the equation, basically, that created these methane-busting feed additives and cow-fart vaccines. That’s the whole rationale behind this.”