Six Top Tips we must know on water supply of poultry farm
Published:June 21, 2011
Summary
Profitability in poultry production can only be optimized when everything goes right, and that includes keeping the birds healthy.
Hygienic Water supply system is one of the most important key factors for good health and growth of poultry. It is important for water to remain hygienic all the way until it reaches the birds, and so water & drinker lines hygiene must be a focus of attention f...
I have also observed that many poultry farm technicians and poultry producers are not aware of the chemical reactions occurring after addition of 2 or more compatible and non compatible items at a time in water.
Lack of such knowledge will leads to adverse effects on poultry production so i am very much thankful for updating and compiling such informative data for the readers.
I hope every body will aware of the importance of water quality in poultry production after reading this data.
Interesting article about water supply of poultry farm. Mainly water is the source of many common infections.These practicle tips will help farmers to maintain clean water supply to the birds and improve the production. Thanks Dr.R.K.Trifale
Nice article about water supply of poultry farm, informative and very useful tips regarding the compatibility of different chemicals. Please keep posting more of it.
Kindly guide if TDS level in the water is more than1000 and huge scales are deposited on cooling pads then what should be the solution of it.
yes a good article about water supply of poultry farm and all commercial farmers are aware of this points mentioned and not a new data produced, basic technical literature
Dear Mr.Manoj Garg,
Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) levels in drinking water as per WHO guide line are given below:
TDS level is excellent if it is less than 300 mg/litre.
Between 300 & 600 mg/litre is good.
Between 600 & 900 mg/litre is fair.
Poor – between 900 &1200 mg/litre
And TDS greater than 1200 mg/litre is unacceptable for human consumption.
High TDS generally indicates hard water. However, for poultry safe upper limit of TDS exposure has been registered approximately 1200 mg to 2200 mg/litre. Low quality water may also contain TSS (Total Suspended Solids) to worsen the water supply so filter equipments must be run accordingly if required.
Certain components of TDS, such as magnesium, calcium, sulfates, carbonates & chlorides affect in water distribution system due to corrosive nature. High TDS levels (>900 mg/litre) cause excessive scaling buildup in water pipe line, valves & filters as mentioned by you which also add on system maintenance cost.
There is no right & economical method available to clean the buildup scaling once it has developed in the water supply chain so better to determine the quality of water at source before regular use.
Thanks,
Dear Dr.Jaydip / Mr.Manoj,
Thanks a lot for giving me an opportunity to share my experience & little knowledge in this forum. I also appreciate comments of all veteran scientists & professional.
It has been observed that in hard water (TDS > 1200 mg/L) supply chain, it is difficult to get desired result from water sanitizers.
The level of total hardness of water is indicated by a calculation where mainly calcium & magnesium value are calculated as mg/L (ppm) (Cax2.5 ) + (Mgx4.12) = Harness in mg/L
Since both Ca & Mg are highly alkaline, hardness level of water will subsequently alter the pH level of water rising towards alkalinity asking more amount of acidifier to balance the desire level of water pH.
A good quality water acidifier may help to reduce corrosiveness of hard water having high TDS.
Thanks !
Excellent article about water supply of poultry farm and full of knowledge. Please continue to write these type of articles which are practical. Congratulations!
Thanks for quoting the role of hardness with PH level of Water.i.e. Hardness of water is directly proportional to PH of water.
But till one practical question in my mind " for the drinking water having the hardness more than 600 ppm only good quality acidifier works"?
As per my experience where ever hardness of water is more than 600 ppm , the chances are more for respiratory problems apart from using the good quality acidifiers along with sanitizers too. So request you that please advise apart from softeners any other option to reduce the hardness of water?
I agree with you that chances of disease incidence are more where hard water is used in poultry farm. As we are aware that most of the pathogenic microorganism tend to grow fast in pH above 5 hence the disease prevalence.
Apart from our earlier advice, it will be necessary to install POE (Point Of Entry) Equipment to solve the hard water problem which operates by ION exchange method. This is useful for water conditioning devises and is also used for reducing hardness of wells water and utility supply with high levels of calcium & magnesium. Although a water softener has some filtering ability to filter particulate matter, it is necessary to filter water with heavy turbidity prior to softening process. (I have personally seen this devise / equipment working at Sydney suburb for residential utility & farm use.)
Dear Mr. Ganesh,
I am really thankful for your updating and prompt reply.
I will be very much thankful if you will update us on more information on POE( Equipment to solve the hard water problem) viz. Cost, capacity, suppliers etc.
Awaiting your feedback.
Thanks & regards,
Dr. Jaydip
Chlorine dioxide happens to be a dark horse; and has always been underestimated in confusion as a chlorination product. Also, it is known to have some efficacy on hard water also..
Dear Dr.Jaydip,
I was waiting to get comment from authentic sources but in vain. However, I would like to share little knowledge regarding POE Equipment used now days to solve hard water problems.
Varieties of POE equipments are available:
01. An electronic descaler : A non invasive hard water treatment system, using the only flow of water. It does not change composition of water and hard scale disappears gradually.
02. Ion exchange water softener: In this system, water passes through a resin bed, here the calcium & magnesium ions of hard water are exchanged for sodium ions producing water softened to the desired level. These units generally have a brine tank and resin regeneration is done at site.
03. Magnetic Water Softener: This system magnetically conditions water, preventing & progressively eliminating scaling & corrosion. MWS is preferred among others as it does not require replacements & chemical or electricity and different models are available for different pipe size.
Ion Exchange Units are locally available in India. M/S Raindrop Water Technologies, Ahmedabad is one of few suppliers in India. Their email id is kinjaloog@yahoo.co.in . You may also contact through email – jwoodard@magneticwater.net for Magnetic Water GMX which is a reputed supplier of MWS-GMX. For portable equipment cost would be around $ 600-800 only.
Hope this will serve your purpose.
Regards,
G.K.Dahal
Water is part of the nutrition of all chickens if it is contaminatetd if will affect the growth due to bacterial, hardness and FCR of the bird. Water should highly regulated bt testing for all impurities that make water unsafe to drink , this means that the water should be as clean as that one consumed by humans. dont let your water liners and drinkers contaminated with bi products of water cleaning.
Infected water source is one of the major cause of sickness in poultry farm, so birds should be given clean water from clean source. when disease in poultry farm is as a result of water supply, no matter how the birds are treated; the medications given to them, following all the sanitation measures in poultry farming, the disease will still linger on unless the source of water is made clean.
You are right Mr.Agughalam. Despite of clean water source chances of contamination is always there in water supply chain hence preventive process / sanitization is recommended.
Thanks !
I have some doubt for point no 2 "Ion exchange water softener: In this system, water passes through a resin bed, here the calcium & magnesium ions of hard water are exchanged for sodium ions producing water softened to the desired level. These units generally have a brine tank and resin regeneration is done at site.
In my experience such softener did not gave suitable results and need pakka maintenance.
Resin binds Ca and Mg by sparing two Na and chicken kidney is more vulnerable to ions because it is not like human and high conc. of sodium in the water may also lead to toxicity. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I agree with you that excess sodium ion in drinking water would be harmful for poultry. In my opinion also acidified drinking water is best way to maintain gut health index as GI tract of poultry are acidic by nature.
Dear. Dahal Thanks for such a beautiful article. The underground water of our place (Nawalparasi district) is known to contain high level of Arsenic. We use same water for our Layer bird farm. Does Arsenic posses a threat to poultry health as it does to that of human?