The probe from DeLong and Hinrichs, on the
other hand, had worked right away: The Hydrate Ridge sediments were
loaded with their methane eater, which is not a bacterium at all but a
species of Archaea, an ancient group
of microbes that diverged from bacteria billions
of years ago and are as distinct from them now, genetically speaking, as humans are.
Food animals constitute roughly 20 %
of the case
load and camelids and
other species (pigs and exotics) making up the final 5 %
of cases admitted to the large animal hospital.