Emergency Livestock Disposal Home

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Project in Detail
Background
Objectives
Composting System Tested
Research Methods
Preliminary Results
Project Sponsors & Contacts

Draft Guidelines for Emergency Cattle Mortality Composting

Link to  ISU Swine Mortality Composting Website

PROJECT BACKGROUND & PURPOSE

Background
In February 2001, Great Britain was hit by a massive foot-and-mouth disease epidemic that spread throughout the country in less than two weeks and ultimately infected nearly 2,000 farms.  During the course of the epidemic six million animals were destroyed in an effort to abate further spread of the highly contagious disease.

In addition to serious economic and social impacts, the British foot and mouth epidemic created a huge animal mortality disposal problem.  Early use of mass incineration in open pyres soon lead to public concern about the potential health effects of smoke inhalation, and the British government halted open pyre incineration in early May.  Meanwhile, animal mortalities accumulated at such a rapid rate that British environmental officials could not conduct on-farm burial site evaluations, or issue burial permits fast enough, to meet the demand.  Ultimately the British military was called in construct massive landfills for carcass disposal.

What Would Iowa Do?
In the wake of the British FMD outbreak, agricultural and environmental officials in Iowa began to assess Iowa's options for large-scale disposal of livestock and poultry in the event of  a disease outbreak. 

As the largest producer of swine in the U.S.(12,000,000 pigs and breeding stock on hand at any time), the # 1 state in egg production, (more than 34,000,000 laying hens), and the # 6 state in beef cattle production, Iowa is home to huge numbers of poultry and livestock.  In the event of a poultry or livestock disease outbreak, mortality disposal could become a massive logistics problem and have potentially serious environmental consequences. 

Iowa's Options Limited

Rendering - For many years livestock and poultry producers have relied on the commercial rendering industry for disposal of normal daily mortalities. But as Iowa's poultry and livestock industries have been growing, increasing transportation costs, reduced markets for rendered products, and biosecurity concerns have taken their toll on the rendering industry. To day, Iowa is served by only 4 rendering plants owned by 3 companies.  As would be expected, rendering plant capacities are designed to roughly match normal daily mortality rates, not the massive losses associated with a major disease outbreak.   

Burial -  Although generally believed to be the best available disposal option in the event of a widespread disease outbreak, burial of large numbers of animals in environmentally sensitive areas is not recommended. 

Preliminary geographic analysis by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources indicates that shallow water tables, shallow bedrock, and similar limitations would make on-farm mass burial undesirable or physically impossible on nearly 45% of Iowa's land area.  The map below shows areas that are likely to be unsuitable for mass burial (pink), cautionary areas (light blue) that may have some burial limitations, and unrestricted burial areas (white).

In addition to geologic/environmental considerations, use of burial during the winter months would present additional challenges as frost depths in some regions of Iowa can reach four feet or more. 

Off-farm burial at public landfills could help to overcome the environmental and frost problems noted above.  This would require extensive transport of mortalities from farms to landfills, however, and special precautions will be needed to insure that contagious disease is not spread during transport.

Incineration - Based on the British experience with open pyre incineration, this method of disposal would be very difficult to sanction.  Furthermore, this method requires very large quantities of wood fuel which may be difficult to obtain since Iowa does not have a significant timber industry.

Air-curtain burners reportedly were used effectively for poultry and livestock disposal in North Carolina following hurricane Floyd in 19??.  This equipment uses forced air combustion,  petroleum fuel, and an insulated fire box or earthen trench to achieve the high temperatures needed to burn large carcasses that are 70% water without producing serious air pollution.  In the event of widespread animal disease, the timely availability of air-curtain incineration equipment could conceivably limit use of this disposal method.

What About Composting? - In the early 1990's, the poultry industry in the eastern U.S. began successful use of composting for disposal of normal daily mortalities.  By the late 1990's swine producers in Iowa also began composting to combat increasing rendering costs, declining availability of rendering service, and perceived biosecurity issues associated with rendering vehicles.  A survey of pork producers conducted by Iowa State University and the Iowa Pork Producers Association in 2001 showed that 12% of producers were relying solely on composting for mortality disposal, and an additional 6% were using composting as a "backup" disposal method at times when rendering service was not available.  (See the ISU Swine Mortality Composting Website www.abe.iastate.edu/pigsgone for further background on swine composting methods and equipment.)

Recognizing the practical limitations of rendering, burial, and incineration, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources contacted researchers at Iowa State University in the fall of 2001 and asked them to to investigate the feasibility, environmental impacts, and biosecurity of using on-farm composting for emergency disposal of beef or dairy animals in the event of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the State of Iowa.

For further details on project objectives, methods, and results, click on the the navigation bar on the left-hand side of this website. 

In Brief

Why is the State of Iowa Studying Composting of Livestock Mortalities?

* Iowa is a major producer of poultry and livestock products in the U.S. It's production rankings are:
- 1st in swine
- 1st in egg laying
- 8th in cattle & calves
- 9th in sheep & lambs.

* If a major poultry or livestock disease outbreak (or agro-terrorism) occurs, Iowa's rendering industry would be overwhelmed, and environmentally safe alternative methods of disposal would be needed.

* Shallow bedrock and groundwater, and proximity to pollution sensitive resources or facilities, make nearly 40% of Iowa's land area unsuitable for mass burial.