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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment » Agroecosystems Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #217098
Title: Bacterial Hazards Associated with Swine Wastes

Author
item Ziemer, Cherie
item MACKIE, RODERICK - UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Submitted to: Scientific and Technical Review
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/12/2008
Publication Date: 12/31/2008
Citation: Ziemer, C.J., Mackie, R.I. 2008. Bacterial Hazards Associated with Swine Wastes. Scientific and Technical Review. Special Publication No. 29.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Understanding the implications of the persistence of swine-associated zoonotic pathogens during storage, treatment, and land application is important to assessing and controlling their presence in the environment. This review focuses on the persistence of the best characterized bacterial pathogens (Salmonella, E. coli, Camplylobacter, Listeria, and Enterococcus) contained in stored swine wastes, the effects of land application, their survival in soil, the effects of runoff events, and their presence in water. Determining the environmental fate of bacterial pathogens from swine wastes is extremely difficult. Biological variables include pathogen shedding by individual pigs; microbial interactions within stored waste; inoculation of stored manure each time a pig sheds pathogens; interactions with plants, nematodes, organic matter, and soil microorganisms after land application; and water organic matter, aquatic plants, and plankton once the pathogens enter water systems. Physical variables include type of waste storage, temperature and humidity during storage, soil type, temperature, moisture, water pH, salinity, and rainfall events. Fecal shedding of pathogens has been the aspect of this topic that has been most studied, yet understanding still is limited. While some research indicates that pathogens in swine manure do not survive long once they are applied to the soil, other data contradicts this with relatively long survival times in soil and water. There is a great need for good hypothesis driven research to determine the factors that affect the environmental survival and persistence of zoonotic pathogens contained in swine manures.