[Disease agents in feces and their epidemiologic significance]

The causative agents of nearly all infectious diseases are excreted either directly or indirectly by the infected animals. In many cases they leave the animals' body with the faeces. In most cases the pathogenic agents end up on the floor of the animal housing. Thus they can be found in the farm-yard manure or in the slurry. The danger of infection by slurry is only assumed but not yet sufficiently quantified. To reduce the assumed risk of any slurry an expert group of the European Communities has elaborated recommendations for long-term storage and agricultural utilization of slurry. Provable infected slurry comes within the provisions of the animal epidemics law. The problem of an acceptable risk in connection with infected slurry is discussed, when it was not or not sufficiently disinfected but only long-term stored to wait for the natural die-off of the pathogens concerned. A transfer of such considerations into the practice of notifiable disease eradication is rejected. A regular disinfection of infected animal excrements is considered to be unrenouncable.