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Exposure Assessment of Livestock Carcass Management Options During a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak
Citation:
Chattopadhyay, S. Exposure Assessment of Livestock Carcass Management Options During a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-18/074, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This report compared various livestock carcass management options and provided decision-making criteria in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak. Healthy livestock can become infected by inhaling or ingesting infective foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDv) released from live animals or the carcasses of infected animals. The potential for carcasses to release infective FMDv is greatest in the hours and days following death as the carcasses begin to decompose and fluids are released. Potential exposures become less likely with time because FMDv does not replicate outside a living host and is progressively inactivated by biological decay. If carcasses cannot be managed immediately after death, the temporary carcass pile could expose nearby livestock. Site-specific conditions affect which of the seven management options (on-site open burning [pyre], on-site air-curtain burning, on-site unlined burial, on-site composting, off-site fixed-facility incineration, off-site landfilling, and off-site carcass rendering) would be appropriate to protect human health and the environment in the event of a biological incident. This report provides information to public health and environmental agencies, animal farmers, veterinarians and other diverse group of professionals that they can use in site-specific decision-making to improve the health and well-being of animals, humans, and the environment.
Description:
Report—Exposure estimates were performed to rank the various livestock carcass management options relative to one another for a hypothetical site and mortality scenario from a potential biological incident. Assessment included an ordinal scale ranking (ranking of individual conditions and/or items along the continuum of the characteristic being scaled) supported by a weight-of-evidence discussion of the available data.