Some hog farmers have begun constructing wetlands to help handle wastewater from their operations, reducing nitrogen and phosphorous in runoff. Now an Agricultural Research Service-led research team is reporting another use for constructed wetlands on hog farms: reducing the livestock hormones in the effluent.
Scientists have raised concerns about hormones from livestock waste entering the environment and throwing off the endocrine-system function of fish and other aquatic life.
Researchers who have been studying the effectiveness of constructed wastelands in reducing livestock hormones in wastewater say wetlands reduced estradiol - a naturally secreted estrogen - by 83% to 93%.
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