Design and evaluation of a biosecure composting system to dispose of swine mortalities during a foreign animal disease outbreak

Composting is widely known as an effective method to dispose of both routine and diseased animal mortalities. Its capability of eliminating a wide variety of pathogens has led it to be used as the preferred disposal method during major poultry disease outbreaks, such as the 2014-2015 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the U.S., which remains to be the country’s largest animal health emergency to date. This thesis consists of three main chapters. The first chapter summarizes the major animal disease outbreaks in the world and the lessons learned from those outbreaks. The second chapter focuses on the adaption of a plastic-wrapped composting system developed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency during the 2004 HPAI outbreak in British Columbia to compost swine mortalities. Field-scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the system’s performance. Two cover materials (ground cornstalks and woodchips) were tested using actively and passively aerated composting sheds. The mortalities were inoculated with Salmonella spp. and vaccine strains of Bovine Herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) and Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV). Air samples collected from the upper aeration duct (air outlet) during the first ten days of composting were negative, which indicated that aerosol transmission of the pathogens was limited. In the second study, lab-scale experiments were conducted to measure the physical parameters and airflow characteristics of three commonly used cover materials (woodchips, sawdust, and ground cornstalks) at four moisture levels, which could be utilized in designing actively aerated swine mortality composting systems during a disease outbreak (e.g., African swine fever). An inverse relationship (R2 ranged from 0.96 to 0.99) was found between permeability and bulk density, as increasing bulk density resulted in a decrease in permeability. A linear relationship was found between the materials’ air-filled porosity and bulk density, in which increasing bulk density resulted in a decrease in air-filled porosity. Only when cornstalks were used, the power required to aerate the compost material was significantly different at four moisture levels (P=0.008).

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Biological Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Da Cruz Costa, Tiago Henrique

Contributors dc:contributor

• Akdeniz, Neslihan
• Gates, Richard S.
• Zhang, Yuanhui

• Biosecure
• composting
• disease
• mortality
• livestock
• permeability

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Tiago Da Cruz Costa

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108041

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108041