A post shared more than 2,600 times on Facebook claims that methane-reducing cow feed additive Bovaer reduces the fertility of cattle, and that its manufacturer is investing in lab-grown meat.
The post, which is a screenshot of part of a post on X (formerly Twitter), states: “DSM, the manufacturer of Bovaer, is an investor in a lab made fake meat company ‘Meatable’.
“What interest would DSM have in reducing the fertility of real cattle and poisoning them and us by extension through contaminating real dairy and real meat with 3-nitrooxypropanol?”
A reply also included in the screenshot says: “Maybe this is why. They don’t want you to have cows at all, Jim. That’s the end game here.”
It’s true that DSM-Firmenich, the company that developed and owns Bovaer, is an investor in ‘Meatable’, a company which uses stem cells to grow muscle and fat cells which can be made into ground meat products.
However, when fed in approved doses to cattle, Bovaer—a brand name for the additive 3-Nitrooxypropanol, or 3-NOP—has not been found to reduce the fertility of cows or poison “them and us by extension”.
In a detailed Q&A on the safety of Bovaer, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said: “The FSA safety assessment concluded there are no safety concerns when Bovaer is used at the approved dose.”
It added that “more than 58 studies on potential risks were evaluated and it was concluded that the additive is safe at twice the recommended dose”.
A FSA spokesperson said: “Milk from cows given Bovaer, a feed additive used to reduce methane emissions, is safe to drink. Bovaer has undergone rigorous safety assessments and is approved for use in Great Britain.”
The spokesperson added that safety for cattle was considered as part of the FSA’s safety assessment, and its experts did not observe “any adverse effects related to the use of Bovaer at the recommended dose, and concluded it [was] safe for animals”.
When we asked specifically if this meant no adverse effects related to cattle fertility were observed at the approved dose, the spokesperson said that was correct.
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Does Bovaer affect fertility?
A study by the European Food Safety Authority’s Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) considered the safety and efficacy of Bovaer.
The report, published in 2021, looked at studies testing Bovaer on animals, and found that feeding them 500mg of 3-NOP per kilogram of bodyweight a day caused fertility issues among both male and female rats. A “slight to severe” decrease in the production of sperm was also observed in most male rats in the group given 300mg of Bovaer per kilogram of bodyweight.
However, this was not the case at lower doses.
At 20mg and 100mg per kilogram of bodyweight, fertility levels were normal, so FEEDAP considered 100mg the “no observed adverse effect level”. In the UK, the FSA decided that the acceptable daily intake of 3-NOP should be even lower than this, at 0.3mg per kilogram of body weight.
The FEEDAP report added that the “severe effects seen on testes and epididymides, affecting spermatogenesis, were observed in rats only”, with the review also examining the chemical’s impact on mice and dogs.
The report said: “The FEEDAP Panel concluded that the use of Bovaer® 10 in animal nutrition under the conditions of use proposed was of no concern for consumer safety and for the environment.”
In a brochure about the usage of Bovaer, DSM-Firmenich states that the dosage for one cow is a quarter of a teaspoon daily.
A spokesperson for the company previously told Full Fact: “It has been tested over many years in many countries; it is totally safe and has been approved by regulators in Britain, America and many other countries.”
As we have previously written, concerns about fertility in relation to Bovaer may also stem from a letter published by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which says that “3-nitrooxypropanol may damage male fertility and reproductive organs, is potentially harmful when inhaled, and is a skin and eye irritant”.
But DSM-Firmenich told Full Fact this relates to human handling of the additive itself, not consumption of the milk produced by a cow that has been fed Bovaer.
Professor Oliver Jones, Professor of Chemistry at RMIT University in Australia, said that there was “no evidence” that it is dangerous to consume milk or other products from cows treated with Bovaer.
Professor Alastair Hay, Professor (Emeritus) of Environmental Toxicology at the University of Leeds, also said: “At the doses which are effective in reducing methane levels by some 21-33% in cattle, [Bovaer] has not been shown to harm the animals.”
The European Food Safety Authority said the use of Bovaer in the approved amounts “was of no concern for consumer safety and for the environment”.
And the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certified Bovaer as meeting safety and efficacy standards for use in lactating dairy cattle earlier in 2024.
Misinformation about food products and health impacts often spread quickly online and can be harmful if people use it to make decisions about their health.