••'
Characteristics and Treatment of
Poultry Processing Wastes
RALPH PORGES, Sanitary Engineering Director
and
EDMUND J. STRUZESKI, JR., Senior Assistant Sanitary Engineer
Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control
Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center
Cincinnati, Ohio
INTRODUCTION
There is need for an understanding of the industrial processes, water demands, and waste discharges of many smaller types of manufactories. This
need will grow as the practice of waste treatment is intensified for protection
of available water resources.
The slaughtering and dressing of poultry is one of the smaller industries
but nevertheless a very important one. Modern development has been towards
centralization of poultry plants. In certain areas of the country where poultry processing establishments have concentrated, the problem of waste disposal is critical. Even one plant of average size or greater may pose a serious
waste problem in a small town.
Poultry are processed in every state. The regional distribution of poultry raising (Figure 1) closely approximates the distribution of poultry processing across the country. Trie nine states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas produced
approximately 73 per cent of all commercial broilers and 67 per cent of all
chickens in the U. S. for the year 1960 (1). The North Central and Pacific
States produced approximately 70 per cent of all turkeys in 1960, with Minnesota, California, and Iowa leading with a combined total of 43 per
cent (2).
The poultry industry has taken tremendous strides over the last few years.
Processing plants have become larger and more centralized and rely on newer
and faster equipment to provide a high degree of automation. Major attention is given to the raising of broilers, since these birds can be fully grown
and ready for processing within seven to nine weeks.
The significant upward trend of the poultry industry is indicated by the
weights of chickens and turkeys slaughtered (Table I). In 1947, 0.8 billion
lbs (dressed weight) of chickens and 0.2 billion lbs of turkeys were slaughtered
(3). This is in contrast to the 2. 6 billion lbs of chickens and 0.5 billion lbs
turkeys killed in 1954, and the 4.1 billion lbs of chickens and 0.9 billion lbs
of turkeys handled during 1960.
In addition to chickens and turkeys, small quantities of other species of
poultry were processed. Sixty-six million lbs (live weight) of ducks and 3.0
million lbs of geese were dressed for market in 1960 (4). These quantities
have remained relatively constant over the last few years.
This study relates poultry processes to water use and waste discharges and
evaluates various waste treatment methods.   It is based largely upon informa-
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