WHAT ARE THEY?

Waste originated by the processing of animal products, animal parts unsuitable for human consume, quantity destined to destruction because unsuitable neither for zootechnical industry nor for fertilizer, nor for biogas production or composting, constitute the Animal By-products (SOA).

With SOA definition we intend entire or part of animals or animal products (es. meat, milk, eggs, fish) including ova, embryos and sperm, not destined to human consume. Specific risk material (SRM) is part of this definition: it includes all those anatomic parts considered particularly dangerous for the maintenance and diffusion of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), such as BSE syndrome, and which are subject to strict measures of treatment and elimination.

 

HOW ARE THEY CLASSIFIED?

According to healthy risk for man, animals and environment the ordinance defined 3 categories of animal by-products with different possibilities of destination:

• Category 1: by products like ruminants dead in stable or parts of regularly butchered bovines that present a high BSE risk (encephalon, spinal cord, tonsils, intestines, etc)

• Category 2: es. dead animals of avian species, dead mammals different from ruminants or with medicine trace, manure.

• Category 3: by-products with a minor or null risk, as animal part suitable for human consume but not destined for commercial reason (fat, bones, fish scraps).

 

DESTINATIONS:

• Category 1: destruction by burning or co-incineration (use as fuel in cement plants).

• Category 2: discarded as waste by burning; recollected or discarded by co-incineration, when materials of category 2 are waste; discarded in a authorised landfill, after transformation by sterilization  by pressure and permanent marking of the resulting material; use to produce organic fertilizers or soil improvers to introduce in the commerce according to article 32, after transformation by sterilization by pression and  permanent marking of resulting materials; composted or turned into biogas after the sterilization by pressure and permanent marking of resulting materials; or if it is manure, digestive tract and its content, if it is milk or its derived, colostrum, eggs or egg products if the competent authority considers they don’t diffuse any serious diseases, after the first transformation or without the prior processing; applied on the ground without prior processing, if it is manure, digestive tract and its content, if it is milk or its derived, colostrum, eggs or egg products if the competent authority considers they don’t diffuse any serious diseases; ensiled, composted or transformed into biogas, if materials are derived from aquatic animals; used as fuel after transformation or without prior processing or used to produced new materials following articles 33, 34 and 36 and included in the commerce following those articles.

• Category 3: discarded as waste by burning, after transformation or without prior processing; recollected or discarded by co-incineration with or without prior processing, if the category 3 materials are waste; discarded in an authorised landfill, after transformation; transformed, except for category 3 materials that has changed through decomposition or spoilage so as to present an unacceptable risk to public or animal health, through that product; used for raw food production for domestic animals to be included in the commerce following article 35; composted or transformed in biogas: used in conditions decide by competent authority, capable of preventing risks for public and animal healthy, if they are egg shells, shells or shells from shellfish and molluscs; used as fuel after transformation or without prior transformation.

 

WHO CONTROL THEM?

All by-products chain is under Health Authority supervision. Especially vets, doctors and prevention technicians from the departements of prevention of National Health Service, according to their competences, supervise the disposals of SOA, from primary process (slaughterhouses,  In particolare, veterinari, medici e tecnici della prevenzione dei Dipartimenti di Prevenzione del Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, ciascuno secondo la propria competenza, vigilano sul corretto smaltimento dei SOA, dalla lavorazione primaria (macelli, processing milk plants, meat, fish, eggs) to the retail trade (butcher shops, fishmarket, supermarket, etc). Community Inspectors regularly visit all the EU countries to verify the punctual and uniform application of the legislation. About the 1774 regulation, first inspection was in Italy in 2004.