[USCC] Composting of poultry droppings control avian flu?

[Millner, Pat]

WHO (World Health Organization) states (http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/23C21802-A0BE-42B9-825F-18977C05EE58/0/Advice30042004.pdf )   

that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus is :

 

Inactivated by 56 °C in 3 hours; 60 °C in 30 minutes

Inactivated by acid pH

Inactivated by oxidizing agents, sodium dodecyl sulphate, lipid solvents, bpropiolactone

Inactivated by detergents, halogenated compounds (chlorine and iodine),

quarternary comonium salts, synthetic phenols, alkalis, formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, and other products.

Remains viable for long periods in tissues, faeces and water, but highly susceptible to disinfection

(Ref: Highly pathogenic avian influenza. http://www.oie.int Office International Epizooties 22 April 2002 ; and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Animal Health Manual on Procedure for Disease

Eradication by Stamping Out, 2001)

 

See http://www.agnr.umd.edu/MCE/Publications/Publication.cfm?ID=557 for the steps for in-house poultry composting.

 

Avian Dis. 1994 Oct-Dec;38(4):733-7.

 


Effect of composting poultry carcasses on survival of exotic avian viruses: highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus and adenovirus of egg drop syndrome-76.

Senne DA, Panigrahy B, Morgan RL

National Veterinary Services Laboratories, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ames, Iowa 50010.

Eight-week-old chickens were inoculated with one of two exotic viruses to determine the effect of composting on virus survival. Group 1 chickens were inoculated with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus via the caudal thoracic air sac. Group 2 chickens were inoculated with the adenovirus that causes egg drop syndrome-76 (EDS-76) by the oral route. Five days after inoculation, lung, trachea, and air sacs for HPAI and spleen, cecal tonsils, and bursa of Fabricius for EDS-76 were collected and composted with poultry carcasses. At the end of the first 10 days of composting, virus-isolation efforts showed that the HPAI virus had been inactivated, and only 1 of 20 tissue samples yielded the adenovirus of EDS-76. The viruses of HPAI and EDS-76 were completely inactivated at the end of the second 10-day period of the two-stage composting process. Control tissues collected at necropsy and frozen at -70 C for virus isolation were all positive for virus.

PMID: 7702505 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Also see EPA guidance:  http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/homeland/flu.pdf

 

 

Patricia D. Millner

USDA-ARS-BARC-Sustainable Agricultural Systems and Food Safety Labs

10300 Baltimore Ave., Bldg. 001, Rm 140

Beltsville, MD USA   20705-2350

Tel:  301-504-5631  NEW 

Fax: 301-504-8370

Pat.Millner at ars.usda.gov