RALEIGH - A mobile unit that could incinerate pathogens from bioterrorism, avian flu and mad cow disease has been developed by a Raleigh waste management company for the federal government.

The device, which could be deployed quickly after natural disasters or disease outbreaks, destroys large volumes of animal carcasses or contaminated material to keep disease from spreading and protect human health.

BGP Inc., a private company, designed the prototype mobile unit under a $2.1 million contract with a multiagency federal team focused on homeland security. Because of recent outbreaks in other countries of Avian flu and mad cow disease, the federal government has given priority to developing rapid-response waste-disposal technology.

"They've asked us to help them prepare a response that is quick, flexible and safe for the environment," said David Robinson, president of BGP, which has manufactured smaller, stationary disposal units for medical waste, animal manure, and municipal sewage sludge.

The unit, which sits on a truck trailer, was displayed Wednesday at N.C. State University's Animal and Poultry Waste Management research farm in Raleigh. Researchers there provided technical input.

"The mobile unit under development gives us the opportunity to manage mass animal and poultry mortalities caused by natural or man-made disasters in a way that is both efficient and environmentally responsible," said Leonard Bull, associate director of the Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center.

The unit uses a patented technology that vaporizes carcasses and hazardous organic waste at temperatures of 1,800 degrees. Ground-up carcasses are pumped into tile-lined chambers. The burner system in a separate chamber below heats the ceramic tiles, producing intense heat that reduces the carcasses to ash in a matter of minutes, Robinson said. Robinson said the ash residue is harmless and can be used as a road-building material.

Each unit can destroy up to 25 tons of waste. Robinson said six units might be deployed to a disaster site to process up to 150 tons per day -- the goal set by the government. Company officials say the unit's self-sufficiency and mobility make it suitable for disaster response.

The hot gas produced during the vaporization is captured and recycled as fuel in the fire chamber, making the units more fuel-efficient.

Paul Lemieux, a chemical engineer in the National Homeland Security Research Center at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said low-lying Eastern North Carolina, where most large farms are located, has a high water table, limiting the burial options in the event of an outbreak of avian flu. That was a concern to state and federal agricultural officials.

"There is a lack of tools to use for response," said Lemieux, who said the portable unit could help fill that need.

Lemieux said environmental regulators planned to test the air emissions and ash residue from the unit to ensure that it is environmentally acceptable. Tests will be conducted in Eastern North Carolina in February and in Canada in March.

Robinson said he expects customers to be government agencies, agribusinesses and private companies that do disaster cleanup work.

Possible customers include the Canadian government, which dealt with an outbreak of avian flu in 2004.

Another possible customer is Vincent Gorman, vice president of West Coast Rendering, a Los Angeles-based company that renders 75 tons per day of animal carcasses into bone meal, which is used as animal feed.

"The industry doesn't like to talk about it, but the handwriting is on the wall as far as the future use of meat bone meal," Gorman said after looking at the equipment with an eye toward possible purchase. "They're going to eventually eliminate that produce altogether."

So Gorman is shopping for another commodity to sell at the end of the rendering process -- perhaps electricity. Gorman said the BGP technology offers promise, if it meets emissions standards.

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