Reducing manure bacteria

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Sagar Goyal, professor of virology, University of Minnesota

If you have livestock and poultry, you have manure. And you have to be responsible in handling it, regardless of the size of your property, so nobody gets sick. Manure naturally contains a wide range of bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. Some can survive for a long time in it.

Sagar Goyal is a professor of virology at the University of Minnesota. He says if dangerous bacteria like E. coli and salmonella are present in the manure, there are a couple of ways that the bacteria find their way to us.

"What can happen is the pathogens move downward and can contaminate the groundwater if the soil above groundwater is porous enough," Goyal says. "Second is you apply the manure and then the rainfall can then turn into runoff and it can contaminate water bodies that are near the farm."

"What can happen is the pathogens move downward and can contaminate the groundwater if the soil above groundwater is porous enough," Goyal says. "Second is you apply the manure and then the rainfall can then turn into runoff and it can contaminate water bodies that are near the farm."

A lot of the problem can be solved by mixing it well with the soil after application, and not spreading manure too close to water or tile inlets. Still, it's no easy job to keep this stuff from going where it shouldn't.