The present invention concerns a method for producing a Mycobacteria-free
biomass pellet suitable for
animal feed, the method comprising the steps of: providing
biomass with variable particle size and / or length, wherein the
moisture content of said
biomass is more than 30 % w / w, preferably 40-60 % w / w, and subjecting said biomass to sieving and
drying steps in any order, wherein in said sieving step the biomass or the heat-treated biomass is sieved in order to obtain even material preferably having a median particle length of less than 40 mm; and wherein in said
drying step the biomass or the sieved biomass is heat-treated preferably at the temperature of 80-110°C, more preferably at 90-105°C, to reach a
moisture content below 20 % w / w, preferably 10-15 % w / w, for the material; milling the heat-treated material in order to reduce the particle size below 1 mm; subjecting the heat-treated and milled material to a
pelletizing process, preferably in a pellet press, wherein the temperature of the subjected material reaches at least 90 °C, preferably at least 100 °C, during said
pelletizing process; and cooling the
pellets obtained to ambient temperature, preferably with a
counter flow cooler. The present invention is also directed to a method for detection of the presence of live
Mycobacterium species in a sample comprising
peat and / or
moss, the method comprising the steps of: providing a sample comprising
peat and / or
moss including a sample of a processed product comprising
peat and / or
moss, or a sample of a processed product made of peat and / or moss; contacting said sample with liquid broth in a sterilized container, wherein said liquid broth is suitable for growing
Mycobacterium species and comprises one or more
antibiotics effective against other
bacteria than
Mycobacterium; incubating said container at a temperature range of 30 - 37 °C for at least 1 - 21 days; taking the incubated liquid broth or an aliquot thereof from said container and performing a
nucleic acid amplification reaction comprising nucleic acids isolated from said incubated liquid broth or said aliquot and an
oligonucleotide primer pair specific to at least one
pathogenic Mycobacterium species; wherein the presence of
pathogenic Mycobacterium nucleic acid or increased presence of
pathogenic Mycobacterium nucleic acid in the incubated liquid broth or said aliquot confirms the presence of pathogenic Mycobacterium in said sample.