A study was conducted to develop organic briquettes using biomass originating from slaughterhouse wastes and to investigate its potential as a nutrient source for plant growth.Dried rumen contents were mixed with fresh blood collected after bleeding of animals in different proportions and dried using tray drier. The dried rumen content-blood (RB) mixture was further mixed with commercially available coir pith in 12 different proportions. The rumen content-blood-coir pith (RBC) mixture was formed into briquettes using a hydraulic biomass briquetting machine. Each organic briquette was 5 cm in diameter and had an average weight of 30-40 g. The treatments were analyzed for pH, moisture content, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen, carbon: nitrogen ratio, total phosphorus and total potassium. Organic briquette having rumen content with 100 % blood and 80 % coir pith (T10) recorded the highest total nitrogen, total phosphorus and total potassium content. The treatments for plant growth studies were selected based on the criteria that each treatment had highest values for at least two of the three primary nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The treatments T5, T7, T8, T10 and T12 were selected for plant growth studies. Pot experiment using selected briquettes was carried out to determine the effect of selected briquettes on growth parameters and yield attributes of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus).Nutrient release pattern of the selected organic briquettes was also studied. The best desirable growth parameters and yield attributes of okra was observed in T10. Availability of nutrients in the medium were relatively less during first two months of planting (MAP), however, it significantly increased between 3 MAP and 4 MAP, which resulted in better plant growth and fruit yield. The study showed that there is great potential for development of organic briquettes using slaughter house wastes as an eco-friendly process, which are compact, easy to transport and market, and ideal for grow bag cultivation and garden nurseries.

Service slaughter houses in the country generate large quantities of animal blood, manure and rumen contents as waste material. Eco-friendly disposal of such waste often requires long time or expensive equipment. The study was conducted to develop organic briquettes using biomass originating from slaughterhouse wastes and to investigate its chemical properties to be used as an organic nutrient source in crop cultivation. Dried rumen contents were mixed with fresh blood collected after bleeding of animals in different proportions and dried using tray drier. The dried rumen content-blood (RB) mixture was further mixed with commercially available coir pith in 12 different proportions. The rumen content-blood-coir pith (RBC) mixture was formed into briquettes using a hydraulic biomass briquetting machine. Each organic briquette was five centimetres in diameter and had an average weight of 30-40 grams. The treatments were analyzed for organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen and carbon: nitrogen ratio. The organic briquette that had rumen content with 100 per cent blood and 80 per cent coir pith (T10) recorded the highest total nitrogen (1.76±0.09 per cent) and lowest carbon: nitrogen ratio while highest organic carbon content (45.97±0.93 per cent) was noted in organic briquette that had rumen content with 80 per cent blood and 60 per cent coir pith (T8 ). The study showed that there is considerable potential for development of organic briquettes that are compact, easy to transport and market, and ideal for grow bag cultivation and garden nurseries by using slaughter house wastes as sources of organic nutrient.

No abstract

The present study was carried out at the Meat Technology Unit, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Mannuthy to examine the colour and bleeding efficiency of beef carcasses subjected to varying levels of bleeding. Muscle samples were collected from imperfectly bled (IB), scientifically slaughtered (SS) and cold slaughtered (CS) beef carcasses and were packed in HDPE packages. The Hunter L* a* b* values were analysed on the 0,2,4 and 6 days of refrigerated storage at 4±1◦C and the bleeding efficiency was studied on the day of slaughter. From the results it was concluded that malachite green test (MGT) could be assigned as a test to detect complete bleeding. However only lower proportions of IB and CS samples showed positive results on MGT assay, which makes it a less reliable method for detecting the efficiency of bleeding. The mean haemoglobin (Hb) concentration (mg/g) of IB and CS carcasses (0.07±0.003 and 0.09±0.008, respectively) were significantly (p˂0.01) higher than that from SS carcasses (0.05±0.004). There was no significant difference between IB and SS groups for the blood loss parameters considered. The mean number of turgid intercostal veins for IB (7.83±0.98), SS carcasses (6.5±0.88) was significantly (p˂0.01) lower to that of CS carcasses (10.5±0.43). More than 10 turgid intercostal veins in a bovine carcass may be indicative of cold slaughter and absence of bleeding. No significant difference was noted between groups on all days for a* value and on all days except day 2 for L* and b* values.