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Poultry Drinking Water Sanitation: Importance and Options

Published: January 18, 2016
Summary
Introduction. Maintaining drinking water quality for poultry is an important nutritional aspect as birds consume water at twice the level of feed. One prime factor that determines the wholesomeness of water is its microbial quality. Therefore, it should be of primary concern for production personnel and poultry producers to know the microbial quality of water supplies provided to their birds a...
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Authors:
Susan Watkins
University of Arkansas (USA)
University of Arkansas (USA)
Pramir Maharjan
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sipmadmission
3 de septiembre de 2016
Highly informative article.
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Claudia Osorio
Elanco
19 de marzo de 2018
Would like to know more about the acidifiers. What is recommended and what proportion?
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andrew page
16 de mayo de 2018
i would like to know more about residual PPM of hydrogen peroxide required at the drinkers after injecting 20 to 50 ppm of HP through a clarifier and into storage tanks before being pumped through to drinkers. to have 20 to 30 PPM at the drinkers seems excessive and expensive when you are trying to reduce running cost without affecting performance. i ask this question as it could reduce the volume of HP being dosed which would reduce running costs. currently injecting 50 PPM with a residual of 15 PPM entering the drinkers which has really increased the performance of the birds outer-site. the water tested is unbelievable with no smell or odor with an NTU of 2.5 and is very palatable to drink. i have been the designer and the installer of all the hydraulics , pumping and water treatment on this property which i take great interest in improving any part of my work that will increase return for the grower regards Andrew page from the pump house
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Susan Watkins
University of Arkansas (USA)
University of Arkansas (USA)
16 de mayo de 2018

Andrew,
It sounds like you have figured out how to find the answer to this question. Measuring H2O2 residual while also monitoring the total bacteria level. If you are starting with 50 ppm but only getting 25 ppm at the drinker, it might be beneficial to do some thorough system cleaning with a 2 or 3% solution when no birds are present to help remove any biofilm that is impacting your final residual level. The cleaner the system, the closer these numbers will be to the same reading.
Well done!

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andrew page
16 de mayo de 2018

Susan Watkins

Thanks for your response Susan, I have read a couple of your reports on HP very interesting.
if the system is clean of biofilm right out to the drinkers do I still need to maintain theses high residual numbers of 30 ppm plus out at the drinkers if the system is clean or is there other benefits from the high PPM residual at the drinkers for the birds. once the system is cleared of bio can we reduce the PPM at the drinkers down to say 5 or 10 knowing that we are probably still injecting 50 ppm or less into the clarifier to clean and sterilise the water before entering the main holding tank.
just seeing if I can reduce any running cost that will benefit the farmer.
we have two farms on HP and we have another two on chlorine dioxide trial at the moment with the HP showing better results.

So the question is how low can we run the PPM residual down at the drinkers.

The other thought is once water has reached the last storage tank is to inject a small dose of HP down the main water line to the sheds to keep the PPM residual in check plus I also have a circulation system on the last storage tank that I could maintain a PPM rate of HP through a HP analyser and dossing pump system which would the keep the PPM level in the tank maintained.

Look forward to your response.
Regards,
Andrew.

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Susan Watkins
University of Arkansas (USA)
University of Arkansas (USA)
17 de mayo de 2018
andrew page Andrew Maintaining the 25-50 ppm residual is often necessary to prevent recontamination since poultry water systems can be vulnerable to the reintroduction of pathogens irregardless of how clean the system is. If in your part of the world you are frequently challenged with respiratory diseases, then even more reason to keep sanitation pressure in the water. Since you have thoroughly cleaned the system, you could evaluate if a lower residual will maintain water with very low to 0 counts of total bacteria. Or an alternative to help reduce costs is boost the water with chlorine to give 1-3 ppm of residual as water leaves storage for the barns. Surprised to hear chlorine dioxide is not giving same results, are you using sodium chlorite activated with an acid onsite or is it a liquid product claiming to be stabilized chlorine dioxide?
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andrew page
17 de mayo de 2018
Susan Watkins hi all thanks for your replies pipe work ranges from 5 to 2 years old which is cleaned and flushed every batch with HP but what we found while using chlorine and acid we ended up with a bio film build up and the water tasted horrible. the chlorine and acid was introduced after the clarifier which means that the iron and manganese was then oxidized out in the last tank which also increased the bio film in the pipe work and resulted in terrible tasting water plus we also had a high PH that we were also dealing with which did not help the matter. since flushing the sheds and injection HP before the clarifier we have oxidized the the iron and the manganese out of the system in the clarifier and sterilized the water as it past through to the last tank into the sheds. chlorine dioxide is being used on another two farms using the same principals with increased health from the birds but it may still be dealing with some bio-films in the pipe work and probably needs to be dosed a bit harder to clear the system plus it is also oxidizing out the iron and manganese in the clarifier Susan as you advised in your previously response regarding PPM it sounds like i need to get a bacto test kit to see if we can manage the PPM down a bit with out affected all the other elements to protect the birds health thanks for the responces regards Andrew
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Dr. Fiodor S. Marchenkov
Kronos -Agro private company
17 de mayo de 2018
Dear all, a lot is depending on age of pipes. If they new, only sanitation is necessary to do. But if they old, at first is necessary to provide tubes cleaning. Watering system is filled by special cleansing solution (for example, Aquaclean), and exposition time is several hours. During cleaning process, gas pressure is increased, so is necessary to open at least one walve, to avoid pipes destroying by high pressure. After end of cleaning process, crude liquid is removed from pipes and system is wached by clean water. Finally, watering system is ready for use. Good luck!
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Susan Watkins
University of Arkansas (USA)
University of Arkansas (USA)
17 de mayo de 2018

Dr. Fiodor S. Marchenkov
Excellent advice, Dr. Marchenkov, relieving the pressure is necessary during cleaning particularly for pipes with heavy biofilm.

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Christopher Hettiarachchi
22 de mayo de 2018
Dr. Fiodor S. Marchenkov Dear Dr. Fiodor, Fill the pipes with 2% Citric acid (PVC pipes) and leave it over night and flush it with fresh water. When filling, allow the citric acid solution to run through the entire watering system. This gives a fair flushing of biofilm as well as the deposit of calcium and magnesium carbonate.
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andrew page
22 de mayo de 2018
interesting we are using citric acid to lower PH , will pass onto farmer
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Paari Kannappan
22 de mayo de 2018

Even though we regularly clean the pipeline with hydrogen peroxide or with citric acid the film is present inside the pipe. We haven't tried with pressure pumps. That may work I think.

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Geest van Jan
Intracare
17 de septiembre de 2018

Paari Kannappan, A Normal H202, is reacting immediately, meaning the first meters will be cleaned but the biofilm is still available in the waterline, also citric and h202 is a very weak connection.

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Geest van Jan
Intracare
23 de mayo de 2018

A lot of comments on how to clean, from citric acid the Chlorine derivates, ask yourself, if you will put pollution on your desk and you will put acids or chlorine derivates on top of it, what will happen, the answer is nothing will happen so the same in the pipeline.
Chlorine derivates and acids are disinfectants for sure but the cleaning capacity is almost zero. The same with products based on peracetic acids, extremely corrosive and cleaning only a little bit, companies like Ziggity spending a lot of time to invest in good equipment, which they don’t like to be destroyed by chlorine, acids or peracetric acid.
At the same moment in Europe we have the BPD registration, meaning companies have to prove that products are safe and effective, this is divided in PT groups :
All products used in water systems should have the Following registrations: PT02-PT03-PT04 and PT05, this you can check by yourself if these products fulfil these requirements, if your product doesn’t have it means the products is or not safe or not effective and food safety should be the issue and hardcore chemicals don’t belong in a chicken or animal

PT 2 Disinfectants application for not directly to humans or animals
PT 3 Veterinary hygiene Used for veterinary hygiene purposes such as disinfectants, disinfecting with the housing or transportation of animals.
PT 4 Food and feed area Used for the disinfection of equipment, containers, consumption utensils, surfaces or pipework associated with the production, transport, storage or consumption of food or feed (including drinking water) for humans and animals.
PT 5 Drinking water Used for the disinfection of drinking water for both humans and animals.

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Chandra Mohan
16 de septiembre de 2018

One of my friends owns a poultry farm. All birds are supplied with chlorinated water. After 8 weeks the birds started dying showing different diseases symptoms. Was that the cause of chlorinated water?

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Susan Watkins
University of Arkansas (USA)
University of Arkansas (USA)
6 de septiembre de 2019
Chandra Mohan no, when water is chlorinated with 2-4 ppm of free chlorine, it can be beneficial to bird health
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chelsia yathati
13 de noviembre de 2018

Sir,
Can you send me this article?

Thank you, Sir.

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Maseka KABAMBI
5 de diciembre de 2018

How can be the measurements of the chlorine in the 20 littles?

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Athangudi Venugopalan
8 de junio de 2019

Poultry drinking water sanitation - there are only chemicals as chemo sterilants[chemicals capable of destruction of all forms of microbes including most resistant bacterial spores-similato application of heat.Chemo sterilants are- ethylene oxide/chlorine di oxide/per acetic acid/ hydrogen per oxide//gluteraldehyde/formaldehyde.Out of 6 only 2 are food grade- chlorine dioxide and per acetic acid. As on date chlorine dioxide is the most powerful germicide evolved by man/no residues/no resistance/active in presence of organic matter/active in wide range of ph/active in presence of biofilm. As such choice of disinfectant for poultry is clo2 or its sister product-acidified sodium chlorite/ miracle mineral supplement. Even case of ro treated water is free of contamination

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Athangudi Venugopalan
8 de junio de 2019

Athangudi Venugopalan Exit water from ro plant is free of microbes but on entering poultry drinking water line it is contaminated from infected birds through nipples.As per microbiology textbook phenol/detol/savlon is removed from disinfectant list. 5% detol in media is selective for isolation of pseudomonas a waterborne pathogen as sich ideal water sanitizer is chlorine dioxide or its sister product acidified sodium chlorite

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Athangudi Venugopalan
9 de junio de 2019

For water sanitation use food grade chemosterilant-chlorine dioxide or acidified sodium chlorite or miracle mineral supplement. All are prepared with base sodium chlorite. Wash pipeline once in 15 days. Late in evening empty the pipeline. Apply 6 percent hydrogen peroxide. Raise each and every nipple so that hydrogen per oxide passes through nipple. After raising the last nipple flush out hydrogen peroxide solution. Flush out with water. To test whether traces of hydrogen per oxide is present or not collect nipple water 30ml add vanadium pentoxide reagent drop by drop. If pink colour appears over addition and disappears means traces of hydrogen per oxide is present, on the contrary on addition of vanadium pentoxide no development of pink colour means- no prevalence of traces of hydrogen per oxide.

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Gustavo Rupp
9 de junio de 2019

Very interesting the work of Mr. Athangudi I think that water is a forgotten element, in my personal case I did many tests acidifying the water to correct the pH and the results are really very good.

There is an improvement in CA, weight gain and decrease in mortality.

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Yusuf Ibrahim
10 de septiembre de 2019

Gustavo Rupp Can you please share with us how you do your acidifying?

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andrew page
9 de junio de 2019

Hi all,
My education didn't quite get to the heights of those large words.

Totally agree where you are heading, you have oxidization and sanitation. some products are good at oxidization like peroxide but are no good as ongoing sanitizing.
I have been involved with a number different peroxides which produced beautifully tasting 1 NTU water supply though a clarifier which removed the organics, iron and manganese, we even had 1 to .5ppm of peroxide at the further-est points in the sheds but our bacteria count was awful but the birds were putting on weight on looking great.

At the end of it all we went back to a high grade chlorine which was injected at the source before the start of a 6 km pipeline, it was then done again before clarifier with coagulant where it was dropped back to 1 NTU , from there into the two 36kl storage tank which was recirculated with 1PPM of chlorine which gave a a ppm reading of chlorine at the further-est outlet of the shed.
To achieve a good result you need to go back to where the water is sourced otherwise you keep introducing the issue back into the system which you then start introducing heavy doses of chemical which results in bad tasting water.
Chlorine dioxide is one of best oxidizer and sanitizes on the market which i would highly recommend but is highly aggressive product to handle which requires the operate\or to have his game on.
Good quality chlorine does work but you need to manage all the chemistry-related issues in the water to get the best results out of it

talk soon
regards
Andrew

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Vasanth Rao Attanti
LOTUS OZONE TECH PVT LTD
10 de junio de 2019

We have a sustainable solution of getting away with the use of chemicals in sanitizing the water
We have successfully implemented the concept of Ozonation in Poultry farms where we can get away with the use of chemicals and at the same time increase the DO in water.

We have successfully able to give the birds zero bacteria water at the nipple level.

For further details, you can contact me.

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Yusuf Ibrahim
10 de septiembre de 2019

vasanth rao attanti Please can you share with me how you are doing your ozonation? Thanks as I look forward to hearing from you.

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Geest van Jan
Intracare
16 de septiembre de 2019
vasanth rao attanti unfortunately ozon doesnt remove a Biofilm which grow after the ozon system
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Vasanth Rao Attanti
LOTUS OZONE TECH PVT LTD
17 de septiembre de 2019

Yusuf Ibrahim sorry for the delayed response

Ozonation is done either at the water storage or at the Overhead tank with the re-circulation method.
This enables continuous supply of treated water to the birds.

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Vasanth Rao Attanti
LOTUS OZONE TECH PVT LTD
17 de septiembre de 2019
Geest van Jan Hi, Ozonation is not a one time process it is a continuous process and hence effective on initial Bio-film and inhibits further formation of Bio-film. But the SOP of pipe line cleaning has to be followed regularly
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Athangudi Venugopalan
10 de junio de 2019

Water sanitation microbiology - sample size-60 nipple samples. as per who norms water sample 5 can be pooled a one so nipple sample is 12 and sub tank one total 13 samples for farm with 10 sheds sample size may come to 130.more than 95 % of samples should be free of enteric bacteria. micro biology of 130 samples may cost rs 6500-00. make meat extract from day pm cases prepare double strength teepol broth/double strength ttc broth/ double strength sc broth/ and double strength mc broth. water contamination can be assessed at farm level.at present cost of peptone is rs 6000-00 per kg. sterile media can be preared even with ot autoclave- ss container with lid and a click on 2.5 kg click on stove. heat with water up to 80 degres c for 15 minutes/repeat for 2nd and 3rd day. after 3 days heating media is sterilized by intermittent sterilization or tyndallisation. statistical sampling is 95 % confidance and prevalence is 5% means -60 nipples per shed. as per who 5 water sample can be pooled as one.

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Athangudi Venugopalan
10 de junio de 2019

Poultry waterline filled with water from ro plant located in the poultry farm. From the plant exit water is free of bacteria but on entering the pipeline is contaminated by the infected birds. In such cases, 60 nipple samples per shed pooled as 12 are contaminated with coliforms. Further if we use mineral water for generation of colloidal silver water is turned to red colour and the conductivity also decreased as compared to water from double glass distillation used for generation of colloidal silver.

For entry level ozone treated water or ro plant water can be used but the cost is the criteria. Indigenous clo2 with 3 % clo2 concentration 165 cc per1000 l of water is satisfactory. Alternative water sanitizer is acidified sodium chlorite dose is 8l of asc per 1000 l of water. Pipeline is likely to have biofilm and clean water from ozone treatment or ro plant is contaminated by contaminated nipples. Even in case of cleaning of poultry water line empty the line fill it with hydrogen per oxide treated water. Raise each and every nipple. After raising last nipple allow hp treated water to be in water line. Then flush out with water.

Present scenerio is vancomycin resistant staphylococci and e.Coli0157 are present in poultry farm. Stastical sampling of water sample with 95 % confidence and 5% prevalance means water sample per shed is 60 samples. Under field condition demineralized water per bottle rs 20-00 where as 25 l water can isrs 30-00 both are certified as satisfactory by means of isi certificate. Can water osts rs 1-00 whereas bottle water costs rs 20-00 per l but both bear same isi seal.

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satish hudekar
18 de junio de 2019
I want to discuss the chlorine dioxide used as a water sanitizer and roll of ph in. Poultry driking water.
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andrew page
18 de junio de 2019
I am OS at the moment in Israel and will be back in AUZ next week What were you after Regards Andrew
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Mark Lacey
11 de noviembre de 2019
andrew page Hi Andrew, sorry to hijack this thread but I am new to the site. After reading Susan's article I went to this comment section and noted your comments around hydrogen peroxide and residual levels in broiler drinking water supply. Do you really dose the drinking water and maintain 50ppm HP at the drinkers? What product are you using to supply H2O2? I use Oxykil (20% H2O2) biocide to treat water lines between grow outs and dose for cleaning at 50ppm. I then flush with fresh (borehole) water. Re: biofilm removal - try air scouring. I start flushing lines one-by-one and introduce compressed air into the lines whilst flushing which is very effective at removing biofilm residue. Care must be taken to by-pass the regulator (Ziggity) and ensure the far end of the drinker lines isn't isolated (I've seen valves placed on the ends of drinker lines and seen them subsequently pop when flushing with the valves closed!) We are based in Thailand. Water sterilizing/sanitizing products are hard to find.
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dan hofer
19 de junio de 2019

I have used acids but every time you used them it grew junk in lines, so for 5 years I just used peroxide and the water is clean. My opinion on lowering ph: really, I think it is not worth it.

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