Mortality Management of Livestock or Poultry

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Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management Water Policy and Economics

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2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Conservation Efforts Human Dimensions Water Security

The Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center , a National Facilitation Project of the CSREES National Integrated Water Quality Program, and The National Center for Manure & Animal Waste Management , funded by the USDA Fund for Rural America, are important projects helping USDA address this issue.

Mortality Management

cattle feeding Deceased animals (mortalities) are a normal part of any livestock or poultry operation. Carcass disposal by burial has been the most common method while incineration of poultry and swine carcasses is also practiced in several states. These methods raise concerns over groundwater contamination at burial sites. USDA CSREES sponsors research to develop treatment technologies to safely dispose of dead animals to prevent water pollution.

Accomplishments:

Research at New Mexico State University found that by following a few general composting recommendations, whole animal composting can be a successful, environmentally safe, and economically feasible method to dispose of on-farm mortalitites.

Based upon results and observations at Texas A&M University, it was concluded that an in-bin, low maintenance carcass and horse bedding composting operation for the disposal of cow and horse mortalities can be carried out successfully in temperate climates during seasons of normal precipitation (Mukhtar et al. 2003. ASAE Meeting paper no. 032263 ).

The intent of this page is not to catalogue all activities but rather to indicate the types of research activities in the Animal Waste Management theme across the U.S.