Animals benefit from adding acids to the drinking water

Water is one of the most important feed ingredients in the diet. Clean water improves the animal’s performance and acidifying drinking water may even suppress bacteria that have a negative influence on performance. But there’s more to acidifying the water than just adding a simple acid.

By Ing. Pascal Philipsen, technical-marketing manager
Impextraco, Belgium

We sometimes tend to forget that drinking water has a large impact on the health status and performance of farm animals.
Water is indeed the most important nutrient and healthy animals drink twice as much water than they eat solid feed. Water intake is even higher when temperatures rise. Furthermore, farm animals face critical periods (weaning, stress, etc…) when their feed intake is reduced.

Treating water can therefore be a good way to improve performances of animals, quickly treat diseases, or improve litter quality. It is of course crucial to use the right product(s) with an appropriate protocol.
When developing products based on (organic) acids for application in the drinking water, specific requirements must be taken into account.


Biofilms

Under normal circumstances, inorganic and organic components will deposit on surfaces inside the water pipeline. This will promote the growth of naturally occurring microorganisms and result in the so-called“biofilm”. Biofilms are defined as ‘matrix-enclosing microbial populations with adherent to surfaces of interfaces’. This definition includes microbial aggregates
and floccules, and also adherent populations within the pore spaces of porous media.

Biofilm is formed when bacteria adhere to surfaces in aqueous environments and begin to excrete a slimy, glue-like substance that can anchor them to all kinds of material. The buildup of biofilm is accelerated when vitamins and medications are administered via the water line, because their sugar based carriers become ideal substrates for microbes to proliferate. As
a result, the drinking water is often a source of contamination to the animals.

On the other hand, when feed consumption is depressed because of stress, or during the feed withdrawal prior to transport to the slaughterhouse, the intake of in-feed health enhancers such as AGP’s (Antibacterial Growth Promoters) and organic acids is reduced. The animals must then cope with a high bacterial load with little or no support, which results in digestive disorders and impaired performance.
Therefore, treating the drinking water of fast growing and young chicken or pigs, or and high productive animals like breeders or layers, is helpful to ensure a well balanced flora in the digestive tract, especially when their feed intake in disturbed.


Sanitizing is not enough

Regularly cleaning and sanitizing the drinking water is one method to prevent contamination, but it has limitations. Disinfectants based on chlorine and hydrogen peroxide are the most commonly used. But they are only effective at a high dosage and preferably not during production.

Chlorides do not work efficiently when pH is too high (above 8.5); also, these disinfectants react with the organic pollution present in the water line and loose their efficacy. The consequence is that the effective dosage of such products is often too toxic and/or negatively influences the crop/gut microbial flora.


Critical periods in a young animal’s life; falling short in maintaining a sufficient feed intake:


Baby chick

• First days…. Very susceptible to environmental influences (from yolk to solid feed)

• Pre transport feed withdrawal

• Mycotoxicosis

• After vaccination

• Feed transitions

• Heat stress

• Bacterial and viral infections


Piglet




• Moving from pen to pen (maternity unit > battery unit > finisher unit

• Post weaning period

• Digestive disorders like diarrhoea


Another recommendation is to remove the biofilm byincreasing the pressure in the waterline. But in manycases the mineral deposit in the biofilm remains afterflushing, leaving a shelter for microorganisms.

Incorrect acidifying

The benefits of organic acids in feed are proven. Theyare today recognized as one of the best alternatives toAGP’s. But what if animals eat less? They can also bedelivered in the drinking water. Indeed, addingorganic acids to the drinking water allows killing bacteriain the waterline and, at the same time, killingbacteria in the digestive tract, increasing digestibilityof proteins, stimulating the growth of lactobacilli (inthe crop) and regulating the microflora in the gut. Inorder to get all these benefits it is important to use a well-formulated combination of organic acids andsalts. Otherwise, it can do more harm than bring theexpected benefits. In this respect, it is important toknow that single organic acids can create severe problemsin the waterline, as shown in Table 1.




Safety through buffering

Compared to feed, which usually has a rather highbuffer capacity (due to protein sources and minerals),water has a very small buffering effect. The onlyparameter, which can have an effect, is the hardnessof water. Therefore, when applying single acids indrinking, water the pH decreases quickly. If thedosage is too high, it can be fatal to the birds. Oneshould also know that single acids, especially propionicand formic acids, are corrosive. To increase thebuffer capacity of the water we formulated a mixtureof organic acids, combined with plant extracts (AcidalML). The effect of buffering is reflected in Figure 1.

When using acidifiers in drinking water, the targetacidity, as a general rule, is pH 4. This is because at this pH, pathogenic bacteriacannotdevelop and water intake is not yet impaired. But animal producers whoonly take into account this pH targetlevel often face problems such as blockedwaterlines and nipples due to ‘slime formation’.
This is because using singleacids will have an effect on only a limitedspectrum of microbes. For example,lactic acid has strong bactericidal effectagainst E. coli, but only weak activityagainst Salmonella, moulds and yeasts.
Some microbes produce a diffuse layeraround their cell wall in order to protectthemselves against disinfectants or acids and also toprovide them with the possibility to attach to surfaces.Mostly these water-enriched layers (=slime) consistof polysaccharides or polypeptides.
When applying single acids to the drinking water,these acidophilic bacteria start to produce slime as adirect mechanism of protection. With the slime, thebacteria attach to the bioflim in the pipelines andcan easily multiply, thus producing more slime. Thiscauses blocked waterlines and nipples.
A properly formulated combination of acids willoffer a broad anti microbial spectrum. Slime formingbacteria cannot survive Acidal ML.


Figure 1 - Buffering system of Acidal ML: even indemineralised water with increased dosage the pHdoes not drop under pH 3




Positive effect on performance

Organic acids have their own pKa-value. The pKavalue equals to the pH value at which 50% of theorganic acid is dissociated and 50% undissociated. IfpH is lower than the pKa value, then the undissociated form will be dominant.This undissociated organicacid molecule is the one that has the anti-microbialeffect, because it can diffuse through the bacterialcell wall, then dissociate and disturb the electron-balanceinside the cell. The right combination of acidswith different pKa values results in a synergistic productthat always provides undissociated molecules,even at a higher pH.

During the development of our drinking water supplementrange we researched all aspects importantfor a safe and effective drinking water treatmentusing natural ingredients without any withdrawalperiod. Many objectives were taken into account duringthis development: effect on water intake, stabilityduring storage and on the farm, antimicrobial properties,biodegradability, and of course, a positiveeffect on performance of poultry and swine.

Table 2 shows performance of a broiler flock (Ross)with and without addition of Acidal ML. In this experiment,the acidic combination was used from 1 to 7 days old and 43 to 55 days old. Thedosage was 1 litrefor 1000 litres of water (0.1%). The feed was the samefor both treatments and was supplemented withOlaquindox (40 ppm) and zinc bacitracin (50 ppm) forthe first 43 days. After that stage (especially duringfeed transition), the favourable effect of the acid mixwas more obvious. Over the whole period, birds fromthe group given Acidal ML in the drinking water haveshown a better growth and a slightly better feed conversionratio. The production factor was improved bymore than 4%.




The power of plant extracts

To enhance the mode of action of organic acids athigher pH (> 5.5), essential oils can be added.
However, essential oils do not mix properly withorganic acids, and, in order to create a homogenousdrinking water supplement, emulsifiers are required.
Still, when farmers make a pre-solution of this product(diluting with water to get the recommendeddosage level), in many cases, the essential oil willfloat on the surface, and appears as an oily layer.

Plant extracts are obtained by maceration of plantsor spices. Unlike essential oils, plant extracts can bemixed homogenously with acids without the risk ofseparating in two different phases. With this type ofpreparation, real extract of plants, still active afterlong storage times, are obtained. Building further onthe proven synergistic effect of essential oils andorganic acids, we designed Acidal ML Botanical, acombination of organic acids and plant extracts. Theproduct contains a combination of Wintergreen,Peppermint, Milk thistle, Thyme and Commonjuniper extracts. Chemical components in the plantextracts show anti bacterial effect, but also haveimmunostimulating, anti-oxidative, hepato-protectingand carminative properties.


Herbs and spices are used in human nutritionso why not use them in animal nutrition too?

The benefits of this botanical variant is especiallyinteresting in young birds. Because they are bornwith a sterile intestinal tract, they need extra supportduring their starting period. This is a crucial stagewhere the animals build their immunity and developtheir skeletal frame. Almost the same counts fornewly weaned piglets. Because they need extra supportduring their new phase of life where almosteverything is changed. This is a crucial stage wherethe animals build up their immunity for the rest oftheir productive life.




By Ing. Pascal Philipsen, technical-marketing managerImpextraco, Belgium