Composting Reduces the Vitality of H9N2 in Poultry Manure and EMCV in Pig Manure Allowing for an Environmentally Friendly Use of These Animal Wastes: A Preliminary Study.

Kwang-Hwa Jeong,Myung-Gyu Lee,Hee-Kwon Ahn,Balasubramani Ravindran,Dong-Jun Lee,Dong-Hyun Lee,Hupenyu Allan Mupambwa,Soon Woong Chang

doi:10.3390/microorganisms8060829

Abstract

In our study, we monitored the inactivation of two important viruses that are critical in animal husbandry throughout the world. To evaluate the influence of the composting process on inactivation of avian influenza virus (H9N2) in poultry manure compost (PMC) and Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) in pig (swine) manure compost (SMC), the H9N2 and EMCV were injected in dialysis cassettes and buried in two different manure compost piles of poultry and pig manure, respectively. The highest temperature achieved in the PMC and SMC piles during the test period were 75 °C and 73.5 °C, respectively. At the completion of the composting for 168 h, inactivation effect appeared to be more sensitive in H9N2 than EMCV. The vitality of H9N2 decreased by 6.25 ± 0.35 log10TCID50/mL to 0.0 log10TCID50/mL within 1 h of the composting. The vitality of EMCV decreased from 7.75 ± 0.35 log10TCID50/mL to 1.50 log10TCID50/mL within 24 h of starting the composting process. However, the activation of EMCV was not decreased (from 7.75 ± 0.35 to 7.50 ± 0.71 log10TCID50/mL) in the control treatment (not inserted in composts) after 168h, while the activation of H9N2 in dialysis cassettes was significantly decreased (from 6.25 ± 0.35 log10TCID50/mL to 2.00 ± 0.6 log10TCID50/mL). Our study demonstrated the effectiveness of the composting treatment in inactivating the viruses studied, which was not the case with air treatment.

Highlights

The increase in the global population has resulted in the intensification of industrial and agricultural activities to meet growing human demand for more resources and food [1,2]
We evaluated the effectiveness of the composting process on the inactivation of two zoonotic pathogens i.e., H9N2 and Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) present in poultry and pig manures, respectively
For the pig manure compost, the moisture content reduction was slightly greater under the air blown treatment than in the non-blown treatment, with a 2.44% and 2.35% reduction, respectively (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The increase in the global population has resulted in the intensification of industrial and agricultural activities to meet growing human demand for more resources and food [1,2]. Livestock farmers have been trying to increase the number of livestock heads in order to produce more livestock products on their farms, resulting in higher livestock density per unit area. These practices have led to increased animal manure generation and vulnerability of livestock to diseases carried over by this excreta. There have been cases of mass infection of livestock by malignant pathogens such as avian influenza (AI) [4] and foot and mouth disease (FMD) These pathogens are highly contagious and deadly to poultry and pigs [5,6], and can survive for a considerably long period at room temperature and even under sub-zero conditions [7]. It is of paramount importance to introduce and use appropriate management approaches to combat and to avoid the potential health risks derived from increasing concentration of livestock production and related concentration of livestock manure within a geographic area [7,8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion