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...
Organic Arsenic trace elements are also added in broiler feed in many countries to control intestinal parasite, to improve meat colour, to stimulate growth & to reduce stress. However, activist working for environmental & public health concern are demanding to stop this practice as the residue could chemically transfer into inorganic arsenic which is a known carcinogen.
While arsenic is occurring naturally in your water supply, you should stop adding arsenic if any in your feed formulation.
Did you know that an apple contains 3-5 mg of aluminum & trace amount of lead, arsenic & mercury ? These are good and essential for good health as these trace elements are from organic source but there will be negative consequences if they are from inorganic source.
Arsenic content of water is of course inorganic in nature & it may be very harmful to human if level is more than 50-100 ppb. WHO recommends a limit of 0.01 mg/L (10ppb) of arsenic in drinking water for human consumption? In poultry & animal farms water containing up to 500 ppb is being used in some places due geographical diversity like yours as main source of water supply are from ground water source. What is the arsenic level in your water supply ? If arsenic level is very high in your water system then you must change your water source.
Please remember ! We should always keep in mind that our food supply to public must not contain toxic residual to avoid human health hazards. Thanks, G.K.Dahal
Uses of arsenic preparations/ products are not a common practice in poultry production for control of coccidiosis. The wale fare groups are getting opportunity to speak on broiler and layer production and linking with human health or issues in systematic way and all over world their facts and interpretations are not acceptable for poultry vets. In this case they say residual effect of antibiotics and residual effects of metals like arsenic etc in birds produced for human consumption is posing health hazards to human population. These welfare activists are misinterpreting many issues in the world and they get success in western countries now a days as those developed countries have reached saturation in poultry per capita consumption. It is very simple broiler and layer farmers are always good activities and best for human food. All farmers all over world get good results where they follow strict production standards with ref to feed quality, water quality and air quality. Let us discourage the poultry welfare activists who are bent upon to disturb the poultry industry. All state management should now know what is standard practices and let us adopt poultry standard practices for best health and quality quality control of farm and products . This is possible through quality inputs only. If water quality is poor PH >7-8 then go for treatment of water through any method. If bacterial contains are more take up sanitizer or acidfiers. But every one point has limits . Science is ok. Interpretations are now twisted with business targets. rathm
Dear Mr.Ganesh. Your article on the water quality on poultry farms was very good. I liked your idea of sharing with us information on the compatibility and interactions between many of the commonly used water sanitizers. I have seen many occasions of serious mistakes being made in the using and mixing of such compounds because sometimes we like to be led into the temptation of 'More, the merrier'!! Do you have any information on the use of Bleaching powder and other Chlorine products, especially on the dosage as well as the final residual levels ( ppm) in water that can be safely given to chicken ? Will appreciate if you can kindly find this for me. I am asking you this because there is a lot of controversy on this subject and the levels recommended vary. Regards. Leo Antony
Dear Dr.Leo Antony,
Thanks a lot for your nice comment. Generally in field practices 1.0 ppm of dose is given at source for which 400 gram of Bleaching Powder having approx 30% strength is used to disinfect 1.0 Lakh ltr. of water.
Bleaching Powder {Chemical formula Ca(OCI)2 - Calcium hypochlorite in solid form} should not be added directly in the tank, the solution should be prepared first in 2 ltr. of water & after keeping for 15-20 minutes supernatant should be dissolved in 20 Ltr. of water before mixing in water tank.
In lieu of powder I would recommend Sodium Hypochlorite solution of 9% strength. For 1.0 ppm dose in 1.0 Lakh ltr. of water, 1.1 ltr. is required.
For safety, water should check for residual chlorine with Orthotolidine (O.T.) test method. Residual free chlorine 0.2mg / Ltr is recommended value.
We must remember that Bleaching Powder liberates chlorine which is powerful oxidizing agent & higher ratio affects health of birds and not safe for human consumption also as chlorine may form carcinogens if it comes in contact with organic compounds which are now a day widely used in poultry ration.
I think it is also important to check ph of water as the amount of free chlorine will vary depending on the ph. Ideally, ph should be about 7 or below. This is important if you are using water treatment chemicals that could take the ph up. In this case, if the ph is high a higher dose of tcl well be required
Dear Dr,Kumar,Thank you so much for replying to my query regarding the desirable levels of Chlorine in the drinking water for chicken. I am going to trouble you a little more for some more details such as:
1. Your opinion on adding 40 grams of bleaching powder in 1000 litres of water. What ppm or mg/ of Chlorine level per litre of water will this dosage give?
2. At this dosage,what could be the repercussions on
a) Microflora in the gut
b) Nutrients, especially the vitamins in the feed
c) The epithelium and intestinal tone
3. Can you please elaborate on the likely interactions with certain chemicals about which you have mentioned in your reply.?
Thank you very much and I will be looking forward to your reply. Regards. Leo
Dear Mr.Shiraj Jeevunjee,
You are very correct that right pH is utmost important for drinking water of poultry which have been already discussed in my above article. If we could manage pH between 4-5.5 in gut of poultry then it will be best gut health for better performance.
I prefer acidification over chlorination of drinking water of poultry.
Thanks for your comment.
Dear Dr.Antony, I have recommended 40 Gm of Bleaching Powder in 10,000 Ltr of water not in 1,000 Ltr of water. With 30% of concentration it will give 1 ppm.
At this dose, routine check of chlorine residual should be done as quality of BP concentration is in question mark as it may vary from 20-30% which are available in the market. 100% chlorine is not transferred from Bleaching Powder to water therefore 10% extra may be added. As per WHO recommendation residual free chlorine above 0.5mg/Ltr would very harmful.
For better intestinal epithelium / tone, boosting micro-flora & enhancing nutrients/vitamins absorption & utilization, acidification of feed & water will be better option over Bleaching Powder for use in poultry.
Keeping in mind the pros & cons of BP, you should recommend Bleaching Powder in water for poultry industries. GKD
I totallay agree with Ganesh Kumar that
"For better intestinal epithelium / tone, boosting micro-flora & enhancing nutrients/vitamins absorption & utilization, acidification of feed & water will be better option over Bleaching Powder for use in poultry."
but i will recommend acidification of water instead of feed.
Dear Mr Dahal
In your above postings you have mentioned three gadgets as point of entry. The first one and the third one are the same and are controvercial equipment( please see Wikipedia). Water softener may not be preffered due to inclusion of sodium.However Reverse Osmosis is the system of choice and in Pakistan more and more farmers are using it specially where TDS is more than 1000. The system by design eliminates majority of bacteria if not all the viruses since due to physical size of membrane pores which are less than the physical size of majority of bacteria.System requires lot of power to get water pass through minus the desolved and undesolved solids viz magnesium and calcium salts reponsible for hadness. Though about 50% pure water is recovered and 50 %goes as waste. After the pure water one may use chlorination or acidification as per choice.I would request your comment
Waqar The Automation Company Pakistan
Dear Dr.Asad,
Thanks for agreeing with me. I would advise you to use acidifier with good formulation for acidification of both water & feed to insure 100% performance by acidifying complete fore-gut & hind-gut.
Try it out, you will appreciate for sure.
Dear Mr. Ganesh,
When using chlorine as a water disinfectant or sanitizer, it is important to know chlorine demand of water, total chlorine, combined chlorine and free chlorine. The amount of chlorine used (wasted) to react with organic mater and metals is chlorine demand, , the remaining chlorine is termed as total chlorine. A part of it is used to react with nitrates (present in water) when combined it is called combined chlorine. Only the remaining chlorine which is called residual or free chlorine is available for killing microorganisms. Othotoludine (OTO) tests only total chlorine, not the residual or free chlorine in the water.
Using a good brands of bleaching powder is very important. Bleaching powder with 65-70% strength of USA, Japan or Australian origin is very stable and far superior.
D.C.Hettiarachchi - Sri Lanka
Dear Mr.Waqar,
We all know that Safe Drinking Water is essential for poultry health but contamination of drinking water in poultry is formidable. For poultry, giving just purified water is not complete solution as chances of contamination during supply chain is always a threat to poultry farmers. Providing good quality water with acidification is right approach for insuring profit form poultry farming.
As desired by you I would like to comment following:
We are aware that nature has given us water containing minerals with purpose because minerals are vital for functioning of human/animal body efficiently. But due to environment pollution, water source get contaminated hence need of filtration/purification of water.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a filtration method that removes many types of large molecules & ions from water solution and also restrictive to bacteria & disease causing pathogens. RO is most commonly used for drinking water purification from seawater, removing salt & other substances from the water molecule.
The Reverse Osmosis (RO) process has several downsides which make it an inefficient & ineffective means of purifying drinking water for poultry industry:
1. RO blocks particles of large molecular structure like salt, but more dangerous chemicals like pesticides, herbicides & chlorine are molecularly smaller than water (Binnie et al. 2002) can freely pass through this process.
2. RO also removes healthy, naturally occurring minerals in water. These minerals not only provide a good taste to water but they also serve a vital function in the body system.
3. Water, when stripped of these trace minerals, can actually be unhealthy for the poultry.
4. RO also wastes a large portion of water that runs through its system. It generally wastes two to three gallons of water for every gallon of purified water it produces.
5. RO is also an incredibly slow process when compared to other water treatment alternatives.
Keeping in mind the above pros & cons of RO, I will not recommend RO water for poultry industries.
Thanks,
G.K.Dahal
Dear Mr.Hettiarachichi,
Thanks for your comment which is self explanatory about pros & cons of Bleaching Powder. Most of the places like ours imported Bleaching Powder having 65-70% strength is not available readily.
GKD
Thank Mr. Ganesh.
Your comment on RO " I will not recommend RO water for poultry industries" . Mr. Shiraz Jeevunjee of Sri Lanka uses an RO system successfully for his layer farm for quite some time. I wonder whether he could contribute here with his experience with the RO treated water in his layer farm.
D.C.Hettiarachchi - Sri Lanka
Dear Mr Dahal
You are right that not all pesticides can be rejected by RO plant but pesticides having molecular weights more than 278 are 100 percent rejected.However if one uses nano-filtration and activated charcoal upstream of the RO membran and add calcium and magnesium salts (which some fars ,here,do) and use acidification downstream will solve the major problems.However in Pakistan many farmers are using RO plants with activated charcoal bed but without addition of trace salts for quite some time now,to advatage.
I thank you for comments specially the pecticides. However you will bear me out that we can not use pure bottled quality water for poultry for economic reasons
Waqar The Automation Company Pakistan
SEPT. 13,2012. DEAR MR GDK.
I APPRECIATE YOUR ARTICLE IT IS A GREAT HELP TO ME ELIMINATE IF NOT ERADICATE THE PATHOGENIC MICRO ORGANISM PRESENT IN THE WATER FOR POULTRY. I AM CONCERN OF THE QUALITY OF CHLORINE AVAILABLE HERE IN PHILIPPINES, OUR METHOD OF ASSURING THE CONCENTRATION OF CHLORINE IN THE WATERLINES IS THROUGH O.T. TEST AT 3 PPM AT THE END OF WATERLINE. ARE DOING CORRECT SIR?. I WOULD APPRECIATE ANYBODY THAT CAN HELP ME IN CHOOSING RIGHT BRAND OF ACIDIFIER OR HOW TO MEASURE ITS EFFECT.
Dear Mr.Alqabre,
Thanks for your comment.
Less than 4 ppm of total chlorine in potable water considered as non hazardous however 0.5 ppm to 1.0 ppm of total chlorine is safe & effective for drinking water.
Total Chlorine is the sum of free chlorine plus combined (used) chlorine in the water.
(Free Chlorine) + (Combined Chlorine) = Total Chlorine
You should select Acidifier having formulation of selected organic acids & their salts devoid of any inorganic salts/acids. RAAFRES is known brand of acidifier in our region. If you have any additional query, you may keep contact through "guybrochemical@hotmail.com" for Acidifier with sustain release properties
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
