Høner som gjødsel?

Summary

Laying hens are specialized for egg production, and high costs for slaughtering challenges the utilization of killed hens for food purpose. Alternative utilization, such as for production of meat and bone meal, may be hampered by lack of rendering plants. E.g. in Norway, hens are commonly killed by gassing on farm, and transported to a centralized incineration plant. The bodies contain high amounts of nutrients, which may be utilized as fertilizer. A study was conducted to measure the fertilization effect of residues after hydrolysis of grinded slaughtered hens, and to explore the decomposition of chopped killed complete hens. This paper presents the main results.