Back S. Sritoomma
Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand
Abstract
In recent years, the Chachoengsao Province of Thailand has established a growing number of swine and poultry production units. Inadequate management of wastes and the associated increase in malodors have become serious problems in the region. The Department of Health has attempted to alleviate these health and environmental problems by developing anaerobic digesters for biogas production, but with limited success. In 1994, the technology of Effective Microorganisms (EM) was adopted to see whether this could help to alleviate the problems. Thus far, results from more than 200 farmers indicate that EM has significantly reduced malodors in their animal production units. EM also reduced fly populations by some 60%, and the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids by 36% and 68%, respectively. These results show that EM can provide a cost / effective means for overcoming serious health and environmental problems associated with swine and poultry production in Thailand.