WEAVER LABS LLC — Department of Agriculture STTR Phase I: 8.3

Description

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are highly resistant to chemical/thermal degradation and arehydrophobic and oleophobic. Due to these properties they have been used for decades in productssuch as aqueous film-forming foams Teflon waterproof clothing and food packaging. The sameproperties that make them useful also cause them to be difficult to remediate and to bioaccumulatein livestock and humans. Currently there are no PFAS remediation tools for livestock producersbut it is estimated that 57000 sites in the US are contaminated and that the number will grow astesting increases. Contamination comes from many sources including water (surface or ground) andcontaminated biosolids for soil fertilization and have been found in poultry and dairy and beefcattle. To complicate remediation the half-life of many PFASs (6 months or more) often exceed theproduction lifetime of livestock. A practical on-farm PFAS remediation tool to prevent and/or treatPFAS contamination in animal products prior to harvest is to be developed by 1) determining theefficacy of Fluor Mop (FM) sorbent at remediating PFAS in tissues of contaminated laying hens byincorporating the material into feed at different dosages and analyzing the tissues and eggs and 2)determining the efficacy of dietary FM at preventing accumulation of PFAS in the edible tissues ofbroilers by feeding Fluor Mop silica based sorbent. These two objectives will give an idea of thedosage needed for PFAS removal and overall will improve the safety of end products derived fromagriculturally important animals in the preharvest environment.