This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.
This week, we are sharing a summary of a study published by Dr. Brent Pepin et al. from Pipestone Veterinary Services on the survival of swine pathogens in compost.
Key Points
- Composting of preprocessed carcasses effectively eliminated infective PRRSV/PED under cold weather conditions
- Compost biomass type (carbon source) may affect the short-term virus survival
- Environmental viral contamination (aerosolization and groundwater) from carcass preprocessing and windrow composting appears minimal under the conditions of the study
- Compost reached temperatures that can adequately deactivate ASF