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. 1969 Dec;18(6):994–1001. doi: 10.1128/am.18.6.994-1001.1969

Survival of Human Pathogens in Composted Sewage

B Beauford Wiley 1, Stephen C Westerberg 1
PMCID: PMC378182  PMID: 4313209

Abstract

Studies were conducted to assess the effectiveness of an aerobic composter in destroying pathogens that may possibly be present in raw sewage sludge. Experiments conducted in this study were designed to determine whether or not selected indicator organisms (i.e., Salmonella newport, poliovirus type 1, Ascaris lumbricoides ova, and Candida albicans) could survive the composting process. The results of the assay showed that after 43 hr of composting, no viable indicator organisms could be detected. The poliovirus type I was the most sensitive, being inactivated within the first hour, whereas C. albicans was the most resistant, requiring more than 28 hr of composting for its inactivation. The data from this study indicated that aerobic composting of sewage sludge would destroy the indicator pathogens when a temperature of 60 to 70 C is maintained for a period of 3 days.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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