Enteric Methane Feed Additive Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- One founding claim still anchors the field. NZ610031A, filed by DSM in 2015 around nitrooxy organic molecules, is the most-cited record in scope and pre-dates most of the activity that followed it.
- Filing only recently picked up. Annual filings sat near zero for years before climbing to a peak of 9 in 2024, meaning the bulk of documented activity is under a decade old.
- The leader board is short and top-heavy. Five companies make up the entire ranked list, with the top assignee holding 6 records against a single record for fifth place.
What this landscape covers
Enteric methane inhibiting feed additives target methane produced during rumen fermentation in cattle, sheep and other ruminants. The dataset in scope spans 16 published records filed between 2015 and 2026, built around search terms tied to 3-nitrooxypropanol, methane yield reduction, rumen microbiome effects, dose response, feed intake and milk yield outcomes. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the 2026 count in particular understates real filing activity.
The technology sits mostly inside animal feed classification, with a substantial minority of records also claiming medicinal preparation or therapeutic activity language, reflecting that these additives are formulated and regulated close to the line between feed and pharmaceutical compound.
Filing trend and technology composition
Sixteen records is a small corpus, so absolute counts matter more here than percentages. The two figures below use the record total consistently: the trend chart counts records by year, and the IPC chart counts records against all 16 in scope, with multi-class records counted more than once.
A recent, concentrated filing wave
Filings were effectively absent through 2017 and reached a peak of 9 records in 2024, the single busiest year in the dataset. That shape points to a technology that moved from early foundational patenting into an active filing phase only in the last few years, likely tracking commercial-scale trials and early regulatory approvals for methane-reducing additives.
Feed classification dominates, medicinal and therapeutic language follows
Every one of the 16 records in scope carries an A23K animal feed classification, which is expected given the search scope. Beyond that, 37.5% of records also carry A61K medicinal preparation language and 31.3% carry A61P therapeutic activity language, showing that a meaningful share of applicants are drafting claims that straddle feed and pharmaceutical framing rather than pure agricultural formulation.
Shares are the percentage of the 16 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Enteric Methane Inhibiting Feed Additives with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe record every filer in this space has to read
NZ610031A — Use of nitrooxy organic molecules in feed for reducing methane emission in ruminants
The disclosure covers organic nitrooxy compounds of a defined general formula used as an active compound in animal feed to reduce methane formation from ruminant digestive activity and/or improve ruminant performance. The ruminant scope named in the filing is broad, extending from cattle, goats and sheep to camels, bison, yaks and deer. The disclosure extends to a feed composition built around these compounds and a method of reducing methane emission using them.Filed by DSM IP Assets B.V., dated 2015-01-30 — the earliest and most-cited record in this dataset.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NZ610031A | Use of nitrooxy organic molecules in feed for reducing methane emission in ruminants, and/or to improve rumin… | 3 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; treat this as a signal of influence on later drafting, not of current commercial importance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (1 of 1 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the record count, the IPC composition and the citation table are read together.
One 2015 filing still shapes the drafting space
NZ610031A's nitrooxy organic molecule claims, filed by DSM in early 2015, remain the most-cited record in this dataset. Anything built around nitrooxy chemistry for methane reduction has to be checked against this filing first.
Activity is recent, not legacy
The filing count stayed near zero for years before climbing to a peak of 9 records in 2024. Most of the documented patenting in this field is less than a decade old, and the 2026 figure is still incomplete.
Feed and pharma claim language overlap
Every record in scope sits under A23K animal feed classification, but over a third also carry A61K medicinal preparation language and nearly a third carry A61P therapeutic activity language. Drafting that crosses into therapeutic effect claims faces a different, more crowded prior art set than pure feed formulation claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to enteric methane inhibiting feed additives, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked assignee list returned by this dataset contains five companies — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, the entire ranking the data endpoint returns for this search.
One company holds more than half the ranked total
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 6 records against a single record for the fifth-ranked company, making this a top-heavy field rather than an evenly spread one.
A short tail, not a crowded one
With only five companies in the ranking and the smallest holding a single record, this is not yet a field with a wide base of small filers. New entrants are still filing into comparatively open ground.
Collaboration is limited to one documented pairing
The dataset shows a single co-assignee pairing linking a nutrition and health group with a related ingredients business, suggesting most filing here is still done independently rather than through joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Elanco US Inc. | 1 | — |
| DSM IP Assets B.V. | 0 | -100% |
| International N&H Denmark ApS | 0 | -100% |
| Danisco US Inc. | 0 | — |
| VALLURUPALLI NAGESWARA RAO VIGNANA JYOTHI INST OF ENG & TECH | 0 | — |
Where to take this research
The dataset points to a foundational claim, a recent filing wave and a short assignee ranking — each of those raises a different follow-up question depending on what you are trying to decide.
Check freedom-to-operate against the 2015 filing
Any nitrooxy-compound-based methane inhibitor formulation should be checked against NZ610031A's claim scope before drafting, given its citation position in this dataset.
Run a claim comparison in Eureka →Track the leading assignee's recent filings
The top-ranked assignee shows continued filing in the latest year while others in the ranking have gone quiet, a pattern worth monitoring for competitive positioning.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Explore the under-claimed branches
Rumen microbiome dosing, AI-assisted formulation and persistence/delivery matrix claims all show thin documented coverage relative to the core feed classification.
Explore white space in Eureka →Common questions on this landscape
In this dataset, NZ610031A, filed by DSM in January 2015, is the most-cited record and covers nitrooxy organic molecules used in feed to reduce ruminant methane emissions. It also claims a related feed composition and a method of use. Anyone drafting claims around nitrooxy chemistry for methane reduction should review this filing first, since later applicants appear to have drafted around or alongside it.
The assignee ranking returned for this search contains five companies, which is the complete ranked list the dataset produces rather than a truncated top-50 or top-100 view. The leading company holds 6 records while the fifth-ranked company holds a single record, making the field top-heavy despite its small size. This is a narrow, still-forming field rather than a broadly contested one.
Filing was minimal through 2017 and rose to a peak of 9 records in 2024, the busiest year in the dataset. A precise growth rate cannot be calculated because fewer than four complete years of data remain once publication lag is accounted for. Readers should treat the 2025 and especially 2026 figures as understated, since publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months.
Every record in scope carries an A23K animal feed classification, reflecting the search scope, but 37.5% of the 16 records also carry A61K medicinal preparation classification and 31.3% carry A61P therapeutic activity classification. That overlap means a meaningful share of filings are drafted with pharmaceutical-style therapeutic effect language rather than pure agricultural feed formulation language. Anyone filing in this space should search both classification families rather than assuming a purely agricultural prior art set.
Based on the IPC composition, branches such as dairy-equipment-integrated dosing (A01J, at 6.3% of records) and AI-assisted feed formulation (G06N, at 12.5% of records) carry comparatively little documented filing next to the dense A23K/A61K core. Persistence and slow-release delivery claims, and dose-response schedules tied to rumen microbiome measurement, also appear thinly covered relative to the core chemistry claims. These are reasonable areas to investigate for a first-mover filing position, though the small dataset size means the picture could shift quickly as new records publish.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.