VETSALUS NEWS BULLETIN: September 2026

This is the latest of a series of news bulletins, which are being produced monthly. Each bulletin will highlight topics of interest to VetSalus consultants and other interested parties. 

Methane - again!

Methane generally features somewhere in these newsletters, not least because it is a potent greenhouse gas, the emission of which is strongly, but far from exclusively linked to agriculture, particularly ruminant digestion. Many agriculturally focused research projects are devoted to the reduction of methane outputs from ruminants and steady progress is reported. See, for example, numerous articles on our web site including “Methane its all sorted, isn’t it?” ^[1]

But ruminants and other farming systems are not the only source of methane; melting tundra, climate damaged peat bogs and oil and gas pipelines are other significant sources. It is estimated that the latter may account for around 35% of all methane emission linked to human activity.^[2]

It is thus somewhat disappointing to note that the EU has recently relaxed its controls on methane emission, by postponing fines on oil companies that were due to be introduced in 2027. Citing political and economic pressure linked to war in Ukraine and the Gulf, the change will allow unmonitored leakage of this potent greenhouse gas to continue for a little bit longer.^[3]

Bluetongue

This viral disease, once judged an exotic infection in the UK, is now giving rise to serious concern with 670 cases (premises) of bluetongue serotype 3 (BTV-3) being reported to date in 2026 (to end July) in England, Wales and Scotland. New cases have continued to emerge through August and are being reported in both sheep and cattle. 

The disease, which is spread by biting midges, affects a range of ruminants and camelids and is characterised by fever, ulceration, salivation and lameness. You can find a useful summary here.^[4] Control measures include vaccination and control zones and, as usual, good farm biosecurity remains important. The role of climate change, with warmer summers aiding the spread of midges, is part of the background noise that accompanies this worrying disease.

Salmonella

While Bluetongue is not a zoonosis, an outbreak of salmonella infection in humans has been hitting the U.K. headlines in recent weeks. Over 500 cases of Salmonella enteritidis have been reported, with all of them to date being linked to imported eggs.^[5] Typing of the salmonella species indicates 3 distinct clusters of infection, with one reported death. Imported eggs remain the major source of this outbreak and the UK imports about 10% of consumed eggs, with countries of origin changing considerably in recent years. Ukraine is now the largest single source of imported eggs.^[6] Thorough cooking of eggs will kill salmonella but particularly vulnerable individuals, including the very young and elderly, are advised to exercise special care.

 Carbon and tree rings

Most readers of this newsletter will be familiar with the concept of carbon sequestration and, in particular, how planting trees sucks CO₂ out of the atmosphere. Tree planting is one way we might just manage to save this planet from overheating. However a recent article in New Scientist magazine described a much deeper data recording system that lies within the rings of ancient trees.^[7]

Work on Japanese trees that were aged as being over 1,000 years old, identified that spikes in the level of carbon 14 measured in tree growth rings can be used to identify solar storms, the periodic events during which the earth is bombarded by powerful particles ejected from the sun. One such storm, in the year 774CE, showed levels of carbon 14 around 10 times higher than the benchmark level. A storm on this scale today would have serious implications for a society that relies on complex electronics; it would certainly stop you reading this newsletter!

There was another feature noted in this article which was also of interest, the fact that the carbon sequestered into trees, the carbon that forms the annual rings of trees via photosynthesis, is a globally influenced, complex process. The carbon 14 that has been used to track solar storms forms high in the atmosphere and takes some time to descend. Trees typically show a spring growth spurt, with the actual months of spring varying geographically. This global variation blurs the data. For example, a storm may hit during a southern hemisphere winter and thus the uptake of the isotope would be delayed in that hemisphere. But this blurring provides a fine example of the dynamic process whereby, every second, somewhere on the planet, carbon dioxide is being fixed into the wood of trees, where hopefully it will remain for many hundreds of years.

New Project

VetSalus is pleased to announce that it has completed negotiations and it has been appointed to deliver a Bovaer rapid response team, involving four of its consultants. Last autumn, a number of Danish herds ran into problems when Bovaer feeding started. A year on, nobody can say why — because almost nobody has the data.

VetSalus and dsm-firmenich have set up a Rapid Response Team to change that: four practising cattle veterinarians and an independent feeding advisor, are ready to go out this autumn and examine feed and animals to one shared protocol — in the herds where things go wrong and in the herds where they don't. In a recent episode of the podcast “Malkekvæg”, Rune Friis Kristensen, CEO of VetSalus, was joined by Christer Ohlsson, Ph.D., Senior Business Development Manager for Bovaer at dsm-firmenich, to explain how it works.

The herd veterinarian remains the entry point: the farmer calls their own vet, who has the first professional conversation with the team's Bovaer expert. If the two agree more is needed, the team comes out and takes feed and blood samples to a common protocol — including from unaffected cows in the same herd, since the comparison is what makes a cause identifiable.

The scheme is open to every practising cattle veterinarian regardless of practice or chain, with capacity for around 30 herds this autumn. dsm-firmenich funds the work, and it is agreed that the team's findings are published as they are.

Projects like these are core activities for VetSalus linking as they do to our tag line “wholesome food from healthy animals.”

Vets and Carbon Footprint Booklet

The waiting is finally over! A sixty five page booklet entitled “How Vets Reduce the Carbon Footprints of Farms" has been edited into existence by the VetSalus team. Consisting of a series of fully referenced articles, which have been published on social media over the last 18 months or so, the compilation will prove a valuable, fully referenced source of basic information on the carbon footprints of a range of farmed species. Author and VetSalus Director, Lewis Griffiths, says: 

“This is a fascinating and complex field with the added challenge that the topic is ever changing: new research is published weekly! The booklet draws  many sources of information into one easily accessed resource.”

The booklet will be available from mid-late September in electronic and hard copy from Amazon. A link to purchase the booklet will be posted soon on our socials. 

Dolly Parton 

This newsletter doesn’t delve very deeply into today’s celebrity culture but the recent passing of country music legend Dolly Parton has sneaked in past the editor! While undoubtedly a great musician and singer/songwriter, few will have been aware of her significant philanthropic contributions to scientific research. As some recent obituaries have revealed Dolly was a major contributor to the early research into messenger RNA vaccines, the vaccine technology which was used to control the recent COVID-19 pandemic and funded a number of other medical research projects.^[8]

This newsletter has used A.I. resources to search for references but these were reviewed before use and the articles have been written and edited by a human brain.

If you are interested in the work of VetSalus, you will find a wider range of articles and educational material on our web site: www.vetsalus.com

This newsletter has used A.I. resources to search for references but these were reviewed before use and the articles have been written and edited by a human brain.

If you are interested in the work of VetSalus, you will find a wider range of articles and educational material on our web site: www.vetsalus.com