Wastewater discharged by one pig is equal to that of 7 people while that discharged by one cattle is equal to that of 22 people. Livestock and poultry husbandry has become important factors in environment pollution. The State Bureau of Environment Protection had recently issued the “National Standard for Pollutant Material Discharge by Livestock and Poultry Industry” (hereinafter referred to as “the Standard”), which started to control pollution problems in livestock and poultry farms and husbandry regions.

The formulation of the Standard shows that China has put the control of agricultural pollution problems into the view field after industrial pollution control and urban environment control. According to introduction, this Standard is suitable for intensive and large-scale livestock and poultry farm and husbandry regions, but not suitable for scattered rural households who raise few livestock and poultry. The aim of the Standard is to encourage ecological husbandry, promote sustainable development of livestock and poultry industry, and promote livestock and poultry farms considering the use resource utilization during the process of waste water treatment so as to reduce the treatment volume of end pollutant.

According to survey, the average scale of livestock farms is as follows: 650 pigs per pig farm, 22000 chickens per chicken farm, while the proportion of medium- and small-size livestock farms accounts for over 70%. This constitutes the major part of livestock husbandry pollution throughout the country. In order to effectively control pollution caused by livestock husbandry, the Standard has not only strictly control wastewater discharge by livestock farms, but also listed the numerous medium- and small-size livestock farms as the control focus.

According to the technical and economic conditions in the pollution control on livestock farms in China, the Standard has broken the livestock farms into Grade I and Grade II. The Standard will enter into effect on January 1, 2001 for all the intensive and large-scale livestock farms and regions in Grade I, and those located in state key environment protection cities, key waterways area and seriously polluted river in Grade II. As for other intensive livestock and poultry farms and husbandry regions in other Grade II, the implemented time has been postponed to July 1, 2004.

Source: Chinese Journal of Poultry Science, No. 12, 2003. p.3