In animal agriculture, mortality management refers to routine and emergency disposal of livestock and poultry carcasses resulting from disease, accidents such as fires and release of toxic gases, and natural disasters such as floods, tornados and extreme temperatures.
The goal of animal mortality management is to dispose carcasses in a manner that is free of health hazard to humans and animals, prevents odor nuisance, and does not pollute air, water, soil and vegetation. For a routine disposal of carcasses, burial, incineration and composting are commonly used methods of mortality management.
Safe and effective management of routine mortality versus a catastrophic mortality loss requires different disposal protocols from the stand point of handling, temporary storage, transportation and disposal of carcasses to protect human and animal health and to prevent environmental degradation. For example, disposal of a few un-contaminated chicken carcasses may be accomplished by using an on-farm incinerator but disposing thousands of carcasses from a broiler or layer operation requires taking specific bio-security measures for disease containment and prevention, specially equipped storage and transportation containers, commercially operated high temperature and large capacity incinerators with lower particulate matter and gas emissions, and proper testing, sterilization and disposal of incinerator ash. These type of procedures are even more important when a disease outbreak is a concern.
For more information visit:
http://www.extension.org/pages/Managing_Livestock_and_Poultry_Mortalities
