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FATE AND TRANSPORT OF PRIONS FROM CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE (CWD) WASTE IN MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILLS
Citation:
FATE AND TRANSPORT OF PRIONS FROM CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE (CWD) WASTE IN MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILLS.
Impact/Purpose:
Results will be used by State and Federal Solid Waste Officials and landfill owner/operators to determine best practices for land disposal of CWD contaminated waste materials. Results will help to develop more accurate risk assessment of municipal land disposal.
Description:
CWD is a fatal neurologic disease of deer and elk caused by an infectious abnormal protein called a prion. Infected free-ranging or captive deer and elk have been found in several states including Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota in Region 5. The management of CWD may call for the harvesting of many deer or elk in an infected area. Primary disposal options include landfilling, incineration, and rendering. Municipal solid waste landfills are available in the States with CWD-infected animals and most have sufficient disposal capacity. However, landfill owners and operators are reluctant to accept these wastes because the risks associated with landfilling these wastes are not well known. Of particular concern is the potential for prion-contaminated leachate from a landfill to contaminate biosolids at a wastewater treatment plant that accepts the leachate. Since biosolids are often applied to farm fields there is concern that this process may spread the disease. Laboratory and field studies will be conducted to assess the viability, fate and transport of CWD prions in a municipal solid waste landfill environment. Laboratory studies will be conducted under controlled conditions emulating field conditions.