Windrow composting as an effective method to dispose of large numbers of fish

Abstract

During July 1998, at the USGS Leetown Science Center, Kearneysville, West Virginia, an epizootic occurred in 16-month-old Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). The cause ofmortality was diagnosed as furunculosis, a serious disease in salmonid fishes caused by the bacterium Aeromonas salmonicida. The fish were being maintained as part ofongoing research and were held in uncovered 30-m-Iong concrete raceways, each supplied with about 757 L per minute of 12 ?C pathogen-free spring water. The means by which the fish became infected could not be determined, and there was no recent history offurunculosis in the hatchery system.