Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T22:46:13.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effect of aluminum sulfate on litter composition and ammonia emission in a single flock of broilers up to 42 days of age*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2012

J. Madrid ,
M. J. López ,
J. Orengo ,
S. Martínez ,
M. Valverde ,
M.D. Megías  and
F. Hernández
J. Madrid
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30071 Murcia, Spain
M. J. López
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30071 Murcia, Spain
J. Orengo*
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30071 Murcia, Spain
S. Martínez
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30071 Murcia, Spain
M. Valverde
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30071 Murcia, Spain
M.D. Megías
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30071 Murcia, Spain
F. Hernández
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30071 Murcia, Spain
*
†E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

New alternatives are necessary if the environmental impact linked to intensive poultry production is to be reduced, and different litter handling methods should be explored. Among these, acidifying amendments added to poultry litters has been suggested as a management practice to help reduce the potential environmental effect involved in multiple flock cycles. There have been several studies on the use of aluminum sulfate (alum) and its benefits, but almost no data are available under farm conditions in Europe. An experiment with Ross 308 broilers from 1 to 42 days of age was conducted to evaluate the effect of alum on litter composition, the solubility of some mineral elements and NH3 emission during a single flock-rearing period in commercial houses located in southeast Spain. Broilers were placed on clean wood shavings in four commercial houses, containing 20 000 broilers each. Before filling, alum was applied at a rate of 0.25 kg/m2 to the wood shavings of two poultry houses, whereas the remaining two were used as control. Litter from each poultry house was sampled every 3 to 5 days. Ammonia emissions from the poultry houses were monitored from 37 to 42 days of age. In comparison with the control group, alum treatment significantly reduced the pH level of the litter (P < 0.001) with an average difference of 1.32 ± 0.24 units. Alum-treated litter showed, on average, a higher electrical conductivity than the control litter (5.52 v. 3.63 dS/m). The dry matter (DM) and total N and P contents did not show differences between the treatments (P > 0.05). Regarding the NH4+-N content, alum-treated litter showed a higher value than the untreated litter, with an average difference of 0.16 ± 0.07% (on a DM basis). On average, alum-treated litter had lower water-soluble P, Zn and Cu contents than the untreated litter. Alum noticeably reduced the in-house ammonia concentration (P < 0.001), with an average of 4.8 ppm at 42 days of age (62.9% lower than the control), and ammonia emissions from 37 to 42 days of age were significantly reduced by the alum treatment (P < 0.001), representing a reduction of 73.3%. The lower pH values might have reduced ammonia volatilization from the litter, with a corresponding positive effect on the building environment and poultry health. For these reasons, litter amendment with alum could be recommended as a way of reducing the pollution potential of European broiler facilities during a single flock cycle.

Keywords

aluminum sulfatelitter qualitybroiler
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 6 , Issue 8 , August 2012 , pp. 1322 - 1329
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The work was supported by (CDTI Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, ref. 060004) Avícola Levantina S.A. (Murcia, Spain).

References

Association of Official Analytical Chemist 1990. Methods of analysis, 15th edition. AOAC, Washington, DC, USA.Google Scholar
Amon, M, Dobeic, M, Sneath, RW, Phillips, VR, Misselbrook, TH, Pain, BF 1997. A farm-scale study on the use of clinoptilolite zeolite and De-odorase for reducing odour and ammonia emissions from broiler houses. Bioresource Technology 61, 229–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlile, FS 1984. Ammonia in poultry houses: a literature review. World Poultry Science Journal 40, 99–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, LE, Wheaton, FW, Douglas, LW 1990. Empirical models to determine ammonia concentrations from broiler chicken litter. Transactions of International Journal of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers 33, 1337–1342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Commission Internationale du Génie Rural (CIGR) 2002. Climatization of animal houses. Heat and moisture production at animal and house levels. 4th Report of Working Group, Research Centre Bygholm, Horsens, Denmark.Google Scholar
Choi, IH, Moore, PA Jr 2008. Effects of liquid aluminum chloride additions to poultry litter on broiler performance, ammonia emissions, soluble phosphorus, total volatile fatty acids, and nitrogen contents of litter. Poultry Science 87, 1955–1963.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Do, JC, Choi, IH, Nahm, KH 2005. Effects of chemically amended litter on broiler performances, atmospheric ammonia concentration, and phosphorus solubility in litter. Poultry Science 84, 679–686.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, DR, Daniel, TS 1992. Environmental impacts of on-farm poultry waste disposal: a review. Journal of Environmental Quality 22, 361–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, DR, Daniel, TS 1993. Effects of poultry litter application rate and rainfall intensity on quality of runoff from fescue grass plots. Journal of Environmental Quality 22, 361–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, HA, Collins, NE 1982. Factors affecting ammonia release in broiler houses. Transactions of International Journal of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers 25, 413–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Integrated Pollution and Prevention Control Bureau 2003. IPPC reference (BREF) document on best available techniques for intensive rearing of poultry and pigs. European IPPC Bureau, Seville, Spain.Google Scholar
European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme 2005. Co-operative programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long Range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP), Emissions data. Retrieved June 30, 2011, from http://www.ceip.at/emission-data-webdab/ Google Scholar
Guo, M, Song, W 2009. Nutrient value of alum-treated poultry litter for land application. Poultry Science 88, 1782–1792.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lazic, SE 2008. Why we should use simpler models if the data allow this: relevance for ANOVA designs in experimental biology. BMC Physiology 21, 8–16.Google Scholar
Liu, Z, Wang, L, Beasley, D, Oviedo, E 2007. Effect of moisture content on ammonia emissions from broiler litter: a laboratory study. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry 58, 41–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López-Mosquera, ME, Cabaleiro, F, Sainz, MJ, López-Fabal, A, Carral, E 2008. Fertilizing value of broiler litter: effects of drying and pelletizing. Bioresource Technology 99, 5626–5633.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miles, DM, Moore, PA Jr, Smith, DR, Rice, DW, Stilborn, HL, Rowe, DR, Lott, BD, Branton, SL, Simmons, JD 2003. Total and water-soluble phosphorus in broiler litter over three flocks with alum litter treatment and dietary inclusion of high available phosphorus corn and phytase supplementation. Poultry Science 82, 1544–1549.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miles, DM, Branton, SL, Lott, BD 2004. Atmospheric ammonia is detrimental to the performance of modern commercial broilers. Poultry Science 83, 1650–1654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, PA Jr, Miller, DM 1994. Decreasing phosphorus solubility in poultry litter with aluminum, calcium and iron amendments. Journal of Environmental Quality 23, 325–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, PA Jr, Edwards, DR 2005. Long-term effects of poultry litter, alum-treated litter and ammonium nitrate on aluminum availability in soils. Journal of Environmental Quality 34, 2104–2111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, PA Jr, Edwards, DR 2007. Long-term effects of poultry litter, alum-treated litter and ammonium nitrate on phosphorus availability in soils. Journal of Environmental Quality 36, 163–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, PA Jr, Daniel, TC, Edwards, DR, Miller, DM 1995. Effect of chemical amendments on ammonia volatilization from poultry litter. Journal of Environmental Quality 24, 293–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, PA Jr, Daniel, TC, Edwards, DR, Miller, DM 1996. Evaluation of chemical amendments to reduce ammonia volatilization from poultry litter. Poultry Science 75, 315–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, PA Jr, Daniel, TC, Gilmour, JT, Shreve, BR, Edwards, DR, Wood, BH 1998. Decreasing metal runoff from poultry litter with aluminum sulfate. Journal of Environmental Quality 27, 92–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, PA Jr, Daniel, TC, Edwards, DR 1999. Reducing phosphorus runoff and improving poultry production with alum. Poultry Science 78, 692–698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, PA Jr, Daniel, TC, Edwards, DR 2000. Reducing phosphorus runoff and inhibiting ammonia loss from poultry manure with aluminium sulfate. Journal of Environmental Quality 29, 37–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulvaney, RL 1996. Nitrogen-inorganic forms. In Methods of soil analysis. Part 3 (ed. DL Sparks), SSSA book series no. 5, pp. 1123–1184. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI, USA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ndegwa, PM, Hristov, AN, Arogo, J, Sheffield, RE 2008. A review of ammonia emission mitigation techniques for concentrated animal feeding operations. Biosystems Engineering 100, 453–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oenema, O, Oudendag, D, Velthof, GL 2007. Nutrient losses from manure management in the European Union. Livestock Science 112, 261–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, J, Combs, SM, Hoskins, B, Jarman, J, Kovar, JL, Watson, ME, Wolf, AM, Wolf, N 2003. Recommended methods of manure analysis, A3769. Cooperative Extension Publishing University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.Google Scholar
Ritz, CW, Fairchild, BD, Lacy, MP 2004. Implications of ammonia production and emissions from commercial poultry facilities: a review. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 13, 684–692.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharpley, A, Foy, B, Withers, P 2000. Practical and innovative measures for the control of agricultural phosphorus losses to water: an overview. Journal of Environmental Quality 29, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sims, JT, Luka-McCafferty, NJ 2002. On-farm evaluation of aluminum sulfate (alum) as a poultry amendment: effects on litter properties. Journal of Environmental Quality 31, 2066–2073.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, DR, Moore, PA Jr, Miles, DM, Haggard, BE, Daniel, TC 2004. Decreasing phosphorus runoff losses from land-applied poultry litter with dietary modifications and alum addition. Journal of Environmental Quality 33, 2210–2216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tasistro, AS, Ritz, CW, Kissel, DE 2007. Ammonia emissions from broiler litter: response to bedding materials and acidifiers. British Poultry Science 48, 399–405.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed