Recycling of meat meals in soil after the BSE crisis.

Since the first ban on mammalian protein in 1988 that followed recognition that BSE speading was caused by consumption of mammalian protein and bone meal based feeds contamined with infected tissues, millions tons of animal meals have been kept in stock, waiting for a safe and possibly economic way of disposal. The burning of animal meals within incenerating plants for household wastes or for energy in industries (e.g. cement factories) is limited by several factors and should be regarded with care , because of the massive immission of nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere. An attractive alternative could be the production of organic fertilizers, but several technical as well as environmental problems must still be solved before it can be considered as a convenient way of recyling. The study of the feasibility of the transformation of meat and bone meal (MBM), which can potentially be infectious, into a safe product for use as an organic fertilizer has been carried out by the RIFAFERT project. We report results obtained within this project which include the use of humic acids as a denaturing agent, fertilization tests with sanitized meals and feeding trials using MBM and modified MBM to cows;