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Biodegradation of Animal Waste by Lumbricus terrestris

1972; Elsevier BV; Volume: 55; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(72)85586-3

1529-9066

O.T. Fosgate, M.R. Babb,

Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology

The possibility of recycling animal waste through the common earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris was studied.Earthworms were raised in beds and fed only raw feces and water with lime added as a buffer.The conversion of kilograms of fecal dry matter to kilograms of live earthworms was 2:1.The excretion (castings) of the earthworm was a loose, friable humus type of soil containing 3.0% nitrogen.Earthworm meal dry matter analyzed 58% protein and 2.8% fat and proved to be very palatable when fed to domestic cats.Worm dirt was equal to greenhouse potting soil for the production of flowering plants.An added advantage is that the worm dirt weighs only about 50% as much as normal potting soil.caged laying hens.This process deodorizes and partially dries the feces in 2 or 3 days, and the resulting fly larvae can be used in animal protein supplements.Fresh feces containing 5.6% N is reduced to 2.0% N within 8 days by the larvae.Biodegradation of feces by earthworms, Lumbricus terrestris~ is another possibility.Earthworms can do an almost unbelievable amount of work.Darwin (3) in 1904 concluded that all of the vegetable mould in the country has passed through the intestinal canals of earthworms many times.Barrett (1) reported that as much as 269.1 metric tons of earthworm castings per hectare have been measured in a 6-month period in the Nile Valley.Therefore, this experiment was designed to evaluate the ability of earthworms to ¢onver~ organic waste materials into useful products.