Animal Productivity Disorders: Because Of Pollution? By Herbert C. Jordan Retired Penn State Poultry Specialist When examining a perfor mance problem in breeders, grow ing or laying birds, one avenue to pursue is to measure pollution or toxins or any damaging material in the air, water, bedding, grit, vaccine medicine or feed. Sample and measure accurately pollution of any kind. Failure of any animal to main tain health or productivity in cap tivity can be due to pollution. Example: Cup-type drinking waterers in a cage layer house were found to have E. Coli bacte ria counts as high as 250,000 organisms per ml. of water when 2 to 10 organisms is plenty and zero (pure water) can occasionally be found. When the watering system was cleaned, birds with loose droppings returned to relatively normal droppings for a cage layer. Mortality was reduced and perfor mance returned to relatively nor mal values. In cup or trough type waterers, beware of litter, manure, or feed from beaks of birds accu mulating in the water prior to.the bird drinking the polluted water. Test and/or clean any watering system as needed. After several thousand pheas ants died at 3 to 7 weeks of age, the feeder was found by a micro scopist to have 11 percent of the material in the chain feeders to be litter material. E. Coli was found in dead birds—excessive fecal consumption was believed to be the cause. Feeders were raised to shoulder height of the birds and mortality returned to typical annu AMERICAN QUALITY AT AFFORDABLE PRICE |f>39 Falling Spring Road P.O. Box 219 Chamborsburg, PA 17201-0219 717 263-911 I Ryder supply al rate. Feeders set too low to the floor can have manure or litter kicked into the feed. In a flock of single comb white leghorn breeders, the males at 40 weeks of age stopped attempting to mate (by human observation), and fertility dropped to near zero. This happened after ammonia gas fumes in the pen were measured at 20-40 parts per million, then 50- 60 ppm. then 100+ ppm over a period of four weeks. Manure in the pit under sloping wire floors ranged from wet-solid to liquid from one month after housing on to 40 weeks of age. This situation was not reversed or remedied however the decrease in fertility occurred as ammonia fume inten sity increased according to the flock supervisor. Toxic gas from manure can damage birds. A flock of commercial table egg producing single comb white leghorns were not producing on the expected production curve at 30+ weeks of age. The shell and interior egg quality was nocmal but egg number was low. Birds taken to the lab showed no patho genic lesion except pale'combs and skin. Feathers were breaking and birds looked rough because feather loss was high. A sample of feed was tested and found to have 500 ppm copper and 2800 ppm aluminum. The birds were being fed extra copper sulfate. The alu minum was not traced but believed to becoming from floccu lated fat from a processing plant where alum was used to float fat to the surface of a water tank for col lection. A turkey breeder flock was observed having no problems in individual breeder cages, except slightly low egg number. All health of bird and production para meters appeared normal. A sample of feed was tested to show mineral flow through a bird. The feed was found to have 15 ppm lead on a dry-weight basis in it. Lead by most people’s standards should be 0 to 4 ppm or no higher than 10 ppm. Later human food samples were tested and found to have'4 to 6 ppm lead in some of them on a dry weight basis. A flock of turkey poults were studied having been diagnosed as having E. Coli in the blood. On farm necropsy and laboratory diagnosis showed birds at 4 to 12 weeks of age to be eating litter found in the G.l. tract. This behav ioral situation of birds eating litter instead of or iti addition to feed is still a mystery to some people. If litter is reused, birds are over crowded, litter is wet and full of undesirable microorganisms a bird eating litter can get sick and die. Pollution can come from any near by source. Poultrymen or stock men must search to discover pol lution as a possible cause of health disorder in animals. Opening unhatched eggs from many hatcheries shows contami nated yolk sac to lead all other abnormalities in embryos. Brown, dark yellow, or decomposed yolk material with an offensive odor prevents the yolk from being absorbed into the chick’s abdomen and the failure of the yolk sac to be absorbed into the chick seems to prevent the chick from hatching. The shell membrane may fail to prevent transfer of undesirable microbes or dirty egg shells FUERST BROADCAST SEEDER-FERTILIZER SPREADER EXCELLENT QUALITY OPERATIVE SIMPUCITY COMPETITIVE PRICE • Our steel hopper and tubular ateal frame are designed (or long • Optional plastic hopper tor corrosion resistance. • Three spreading patterns select from. Simply operate levers to obtain an accurate an uniform spread in the desired • Spreading disc adjustable vanes maximum efficiency and uniform spread tor different types fertilizer and seeds. • HEAVY-DUTY GEARBOX. OIL PRESSED STEEL HOUSING. UfteMtt Fvmingi GMuntaf.-klay «, 19W-D5- washed improperly may contami nate an embryo or ovarian transfer of microbes into the egg may cause or fail to halt this pollution. So, produce and set clean eggs. Testing drinking water from several farm wells where animals were diarrhetic or having loose droppings shows high E. Coli counts in drinking water at the source. This has been remedied, corrected, or reduced by not spreading manure closer than 100 yards to a well head. Stopping the spread of manure on a water shed, around or above a spring or pond can reduce pollution as well. Feces, urates, litter, bedding, dead fowl, mice or insects must be incorporated in the soil at the proper depth before “sundown” the day it is removed from the pen. Local laws may require compost ing or incinerating of dead ani mals. This source of pollution can damage water, soil, crop yield or human or animal health. Apply droppings or manure at a maxi mum of 0-2 ton dry matter per acre annually. Pollution disorders can be pre vented but can rarely be corrected. Consider these: •If something is clean or pure Christmas Tree Growers To Gather HALIFAX (Dauphin Co.) Six hundred Christmas tree grow ers from across the common wealth and from adjoining states will gather Aug. 9-11 for the 50th Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers’ Association’s Summer Membership Meeting. when purchased, keep it clean while in storage or during admin istration. • If a breeder is unhealthy, place it in a hospital pen and keep it and its eggs separate. Allow actual symptoms of birds in hospital pen to confirm a health program. • If an egg is not clean and sound sort it, clean it and treat all pollu tion immediately. Clean air, eggs, water or feed, or do not use them. • Incubators and hatchers can spread health problems. Toxic gas chemicals may weaken membranes or resistance in the embryo so use them wisely or not at all. • Adding a pollutant to clean up a pollutant seldom or never works, so clean up and prevent pollu tion. Many animal farmers today invest in feed ingredients that will not last one yeaf without rotting, but the same farmer invests thou sands of dollars annually in toxic chemicals that last many, many years and can still kill an animal or human. Think about pollution, act before pollution, but do not react to pollution in error. The Days Inn, Allentown, is the convention headquarters with Held trips planned to the Lee and Sandy Walker farm, Lehighton, and the Rodale Institute, Emmaus. A special western barbeque and 50th meeting celebration is sche duled for Friday, Aug. 11 at the Greg Umlauf farm, Emmaus. "Agriculture Alternatives for the 21st Cen tury Christmas Tree Grower” is the theme for the event, with speakers presenting new methods of plantation tree growing using soil and plant fertilization innovations along with conventional and biorational insect and dis ease controls. Featured speakers include Leonard Rid zon, Waterford, Ohio, founder of “Nutri carb,” the process of using soft coal for soil nutrition; Dr. Akhatar Khwaja, soil scientist and agronomist, Oshkosh, Wis., speaking on nutritional management for Christmas trees; and Dr. Dan Skow, Fairmont, Minn., author of "Mainline Farming for Century 21” and president of Ag Labs, Inc., speaking on bal ancing soil nutrients. Rayanne Lehman, Pennsylvania Depart ment of Agriculture entomologist, will speak on biology and control of the White Pine Weevil. She will be joined by Dr. Paul Hell er, Penn State College of Agricultural Sci ences entomologist, presenting conventional and biorational controls to manage Cooley Spruce Gall Adelgid. Tree growers will visit the Rodale Institute on Thursday, Aug. 10 and view the institute’s farming system trials, compost utilization tri als, farm scale composting unit, and view a presentation on using compost in Christmas tree nursery beds. A trade show, presenting up-to-date Christmas tree equipment and services, is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 9 from 5-10 p.m. and on Thursday, Aug. 10, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Days Inn. Allentown. Field demonstrations of equipment will follow on Friday, Aug. 11 at the Lee Walker farm, Le highton. Tree growers, landscapers, garden center owners and other industry related individuals are encouraged to attend the convention and trade show. Additional information and meeting registrations can be obtained by call ing the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Grow ers’ Association at (717) 362-3705 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or by writing to the PCTGA Office, 44 Cessna Drive, Halifax, PA 17032. The deadline for registering for the meeting is July IS.
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