Table 1.

Major animal disease outbreaks and disposal methods.

Outbreak	# of animals affected	Main disposal method	Highlights	References
Highly pathogenic avian influenza
1997 Hong Kong	1.3 million	Landfill	– Caused the death of 6 people – The country’s entire poultry population was culled	Lee et al., 2005, Chan, 2009
2002 Virginia (U.S.)	4.7 million	Composting, incineration, landfill, controlled slaughter	– Cost $211 million to eradicate the disease – Rendering was not used due to biosecurity concerns – 43 thousand birds were composted using in-house and Ag-Bag systems	Bendfeldt et al., 2005, Wilkinson, 2007
2003 Geldersei Valley (Netherlands)	25 million	Incineration	– One person died and 80 people were infected by the HPAI H7N7 subtype – Culled birds were shipped in sealed trucks to incineration plants	WHO, 2003, Swayne and Akey, 2005, Alexander, 2007, Elbers et al., 2009
2004 British Columbia	17 million	Composting, incineration, burial	– Cost 380 million Canadian dollars 50% of the mortalities composted inside the barns – 5 days later windrows were moved outside and covered with plastic sheets	Spencer et al., 2004, Wilkinson, 2007, Pasick et al., 2009
2004 Thailand	62 million	Burial	– First HPAI (H5N1) outbreak reported in Thailand – 12 people died from the disease	Parry, 2004, Tiensin et al., 2005, Nature Reports, 2018
2014–2015 U.S.	50 million	Composting, burial, incineration & landfill	– One of the most impactful animal health events in the United States’ history – 85% of carcasses were composted	USDA APHIS (2017), USEPA (2018)
2016 U.S. Indiana	400 thousand	Composting	– Animal mortalities were composted inside the barns – Depopulation was done by the producers with the assistance of inmate volunteers	BOAH, 2016, Gelski, 2016, Brown et al., 2018
Foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks
1870–1929 U.S.	172 thousand	Not reported	– It affected cattle, sheep, and swine in 22 states – North America stayed FMD-free since 1929 through the use of stringent biosecurity measures	Pendell et al., 2007, EDEN, 2009
1967 U.K.	400 thousand	Burial & incineration	– On-farm burial was the major disposal method but was problematic near water resources and lime use impeded degradation	Scudamore et al., 2002, EDEN, 2009
1997 Taiwan	3.8 million	Burial & incineration	– The depopulation was a massive task, which required substantial manpower from military – 80% of mortalities were buried – Groundwater contamination in the burial sites	EDEN, 2009, Hseu and Chen, 2017
2001 U.K. & Netherlands	6.5 million	Burial, burning, landfilling & rendering	– Disease had gone unreported for 3 weeks and the delay caused the disease to become an epidemic across the U.K. – On-farm burial was restricted to protect groundwater – Burning was suspended due to public health concerns	Scudamore et al., 2002, Scudamore and Harris, 2002, Hseu and Chen, 2017
2010–2011 South Korea	3.5 million	Burial	– Outbreak aggravated by delays in culling – Farmers faced difficulties in securing burial sites – Some animals were buried alive because the government ran out of the euthanasia drugs	Park et al., 2013, Ko et al., 2017, Ki et al., 2018
2011 Japan	290 thousand	Burial	– Finding enough space to bury animals was a challenge	Hayama et al. (2015)
Porcine epidemic diarrhea
2013 U.S, endemic in China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines	3% of the swine population in the U.S.	Not reported	– PED is not nationally or internationally reported – There is no PED vaccine in the U.S.	USDA, 2013, Paarlberg, 2014
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome
2006 China	2 million	Not reported	– This disease is reported in 20% to 40% of sow herds	Keffaber, 1989, Li et al., 2012, Nguyen, 2013