WO2020260922A1

WO2020260922A1 - Method of treating drinking water for poultry in the course of raising thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2020260922A1
Application number: PCT/IB2019/020021
Authority: WO
Inventors: Andriy BASHKOV
Original assignee: Bashkov Andriy
Priority date: 2019-06-25
Filing date: 2019-06-25
Publication date: 2020-12-30
Also published as: IL289400A

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of treating water to be supplied to poultry in the course of raising thereof. This method comprises the step of reacting glacial acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a stabilizer to provide a reaction product, letting the reaction product stand until an effective amount of peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide as active ingredients is formed in the reaction product to thereby obtain a disinfectant. As a result it is provided a continuous flow of water to be supplied to poultry, then continuously the disinfectant is added to the water flow until the concentration of the disinfectant in the water is in the range from 0.025% to 0.065 % to thereby obtain the flow of treated water, and the flow of treated water is maintained to poultry in the course of raising thereof.

Description

METHOD OF TREATING DRINKING WATER FOR POULTRY IN THE

COURSE OF RAISING THEREOF

The invention relates to a method of treating water to be supplied to poultry in the course of raising thereof.

Poultry farming, as the most dynamic and knowledge-intensive area of agro industrial production, is one of the most important sources of replenishment of food resources. The products of this industry are distinguished not only by high consumer properties, but also by their accessibility in comparison with other products of animal origin. Poultry farming throughout the world is continuously developing, becoming for many countries the main supplier of dietary food. The share of poultry meat in the total volume of all types of meat is currently 26%, and in some regions up to 40%. At present, the poultry industry retains the prospect of further development and the ability to quickly and with minimal losses provide the consumer market with products in the shortest possible time.

Despite the intensive development of industrial breeding of poultry, there are serious problems and, first of all, those associated with the need to disinfect the ingesta of birds. The birds, in particular broilers, enter the processing environment often contaminated by pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella or E. coll.

Fecal matter and dirt are the main sources of pollution. Under the influence of pathogenic bacteria, the intestinal flora of the birds is destroyed, which has a negative impact on the absorption of essential nutrients. In addition, the birds may receive secondary infections, which can lead to dehydration of their bodies. These problems ultimately result in poorer quality poultry, and poultry with higher mortality rates.

Currently, there are various antibacterial supplements widely used in the poultry drinking water, and it is believed that this approach markedly reduces the development of harmful bacteria in the body of the birds during their growth. The ban on traditional antibiotics as a bird growth promoter has aroused a keen interest in safer alternatives to inhibit harmful bacteria.

In particular, the addition of organic acids to the poultry drinking water during its raising reduces the number of pathogens of infectious diseases in the water and digestive tract, regulates the intestinal microflora, improves feed digestion and increases the productivity of poultry.

An example of a method for treating drinking water for broiler chickens is a method of using Pancosma S.A. Freedacite max L (Switzerland) drinking water acidifier, which contains a mixture of formic, propionic, orthophosphoric, citric and lactic acids. The acidifier has a strong antibacterial effect on gram-negative bacteria (E. coli, Salmonella Spp, Shigella, Listeria ).

The study of the consequences of adding organic acids and, especially their mixtures, to drinking water, showed that the birds have difficulty in adapting to the organoleptic difference of the treated water from ordinary water. This effect can be temporary, birds gradually get used to the water containing organic acids. In turn, the level of harmful microorganisms, in particular, Salmonella, is noticeably reduced, as evidenced by the positive effect on the body weight of the birds and the feed conversion rate.

Prevention of microbial growth in the digestive tract of poultry is achieved by treating poultry drinking water with the addition of percarboxylic acids in combination with sulfuric acid. The birds consume water with such disinfectant intermittently, i.e. the disinfectant is dosed at intervals, alternating with the flow of ordinary drinking water. The disinfectant is a mixture of an organic acid containing from one to eight carbon atoms, an inorganic acid, and an inorganic peroxide compound. An organic acid includes acetic acid, citric acid, lactic acid and their combinations, inorganic acid is represented by sulfuric acid (WO 2012/014016 Al). It should be noted that the known method of treating drinking water, for example, for broiler chickens contributes significantly to the reduction of harmful microorganisms, but it has several disadvantages. First of all, the consumption of water by birds at intervals acts on the internal organs as "stress," i.e. there is a decrease in the population of microorganisms, after which there is an increase, etc. Such use of a disinfectant has a negative effect on increasing the consumer properties of poultry. Practical application of the method is considered complex, involving time control and dosage rate control of the disinfectant.

Also, drinking water lines in poultry farms contain significant amounts of biofilm built up from bacteria, yeasts, and molds. The presence of biofilms has been found to reduce the efficacy of disinfectants. Where the birds consume treated drinking water at intervals, the supply of untreated drinking water is readily restored to become easily infected and subsequently infect birds' gut. It should be noted that sulfuric acid, as a source of sulfur, has an adverse effect on the resulting food product, especially at significant concentrations of sulfuric acid.

These drawbacks of the known method indicate a low efficacy of the disinfectant in drinking water for birds.

Therefore there is a need for a method of treating poultry drinking water with continuous introduction of a disinfectant during poultry rearing, in particular, broilers through the cumulative use of a disinfectant complex and an appropriate mode of supplying drinking water to the birds to thereby increase the effectiveness of the disinfectant on the bird's body, increasing its mass and performance indicators in combination with simple basic procedure.

The present invention contemplates a method of treating poultry drinking water with continuous introduction of a disinfectant during poultry rearing, in particular broilers, the method comprising the steps of reacting glacial acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a stabilizer to provide a reaction product, letting the reaction product stand until an effective amount of peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide as active ingredients is formed in the reaction product to thereby obtain a disinfectant; providing a continuous flow of water to be supplied to poultry, continuously adding the disinfectant to the water flow until the concentration of the disinfectant in the water is in the range from 0.025% to

0.065% to thereby obtain the flow of treated water, and maintaining the flow of treated water to poultry during the time it takes for poultry to be ready for shipment to the abattoir.

It should be noted that the method of treating poultry drinking water can be used for all types of poultry that is bred and raised specifically for meat production, in particular, turkeys, ducks, etc. However, the invention has been described in terms of specific embodiments applied to broilers.

The invention is intended to prevent the spread of harmful microorganisms, in particular, E. coli and Salmonella in the digestive tract of poultry and is considered as the initial stage of purification of the resulting product in the overall process.

The active components of the disinfectant are peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide. These components are obtained by the chemical reaction of glacial acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide in water.

Peracetic acid (CAS Reg. No. 79-21-0) is a strong and convenient disinfectant due to its inherent high oxidative potential. It is effective against a wide range of microorganisms (including E. coli and Salmonella ) and is not deactivated by catalose and peroxidase enzymes that deactivate hydrogen peroxide. It is easily destroyed in food into safe residues - acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, what is very important as regards the impact on the health of the birds.

One of the good points of peracetic acid is its sustainable prevention of the formation of biofilms on the processing equipment. Hydrogen peroxide (CAS Reg. No. 7722-84-1) also has disinfectant properties widely used for disinfecting the surfaces of the processing equipment. Its decomposition products are not dangerous to living organisms.

In addition, by-products of this reaction will be acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, which, as mentioned above, do not pose a danger to the life of birds.

The concentrations of active ingredients in drinking water used in the invention preferably range from 13 to 17 parts by weight for peracetic acid and 9 to 13 parts by weight for hydrogen peroxide.

The choice of concentrations of these components is based on the achievement of the optimal antimicrobial effect.

It is proposed to use HEDP (synonyms: hydroxy ethylene diphosphoric acid) as a stabilizer of active ingredients and their proportion.

The disinfectant including peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, which is continuously added to poultry drinking water in prescribed quantities, disinfects water and equipment for supplying water from harmful bacteria and, most importantly, when getting into the intestines of a growing bird organism with water, continues to destroy pathogenic bacteria within the organism.

For further details of the invention, reference is made to Fig.l wherein experimental data such as the dependence of the concentration of the disinfectant in poultry drinking water on the amount, in particular, Salmonella in the feces of birds are shown. These data allowed to distinguish the following zones:

1 - absence of Salmonella,

2 - recommended concentration of the disinfectant,

3 - permissible reduction of the recommended concentration of the disinfectant, subject to high bacterial purity of drinking water and low chicks infestation, 4 - permissible increase in the recommended concentration of the disinfectant, subject to low bacterial purity of drinking water and high chicks infestation,

5 - upper limit of the recommended concentration of the disinfectant, which, when exceeded, leads to constipation and hemorrhoids in chicks.

Based on the analysis of experimental data, the optimal range of the disinfectant concentration in drinking water was determined, in particular for broiler chickens in zone 2 to be from 0.025% to 0.065% or 200-600 g per ton of water. The choice of a particular concentration within the recommended range depends on the actual ratio of infection of broiler chickens and the degree of purity of drinking water. Accordingly, if the flock is weakly infested and water is bacteriologically pure enough, the lower limit of the disinfectant concentration can be reduced to 0.025%. Conversely, if the flock is highly infested and water is bacteriologically very dirty, then the upper limit is raised to 0.065%. At higher concentrations of the disinfectant in drinking water, chicks suffer from constipation and hemorrhoids .

Birds consuming the water continually throughout their life do not show rejection, irritation or other negative reactions.

Table 1 represents the results of laboratory studies performed for experimental and control groups of chickens under similar conditions except water treatment.

Table 1

It follows from Table 1 that the experimental group shows a decrease in total bacterial contamination by a factor of 3.9 compared with the control group, E.coli by a factor of 2.2, and Salmonella by a factor of 78.

A significant decrease in the content of enterobacteria in the intestines of chickens, such as E. Coli, Salmonella, leads to a sharp decrease in liquid feces (diarrhea), which is visually noticeable in litter when comparing the experimental and control groups.

The effect of the proposed disinfectant was investigated in a separate experiment, in which the experimental group was offered an increased dose of the disinfectant in drinking water. The result was absolutely predictable - in the experimental group there was practically no liquid feces (diarrhea) on the litter, the feces had a denser consistency, and most of the chickens in this group had visible hemorrhoids.

Thus, to reduce diarrhea and at the same time prevent hemorrhoids in chickens, it is necessary together with the amount of the disinfectant added to drinking water to take into account the total factors - the bacterial purity of the water in combination with the bacterial contamination of the intestines of birds.

To control the weight of broilers with the claimed approach to the supply of drinking water, the following procedure was used.

Ross 421 broiler chickens were taken in mixed-sex flocks. Experimental and control groups were simultaneously placed in neighboring poultry houses of the same size (area). Each house was populated by 26190 one-day old chicks. The birds were kept under identical conditions, except for drinking water. The control group was supplied with ordinary tap water, and the experimental group was supplied with tap water containing a disinfectant with a constant concentration of peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide during the whole period of broiler growth (40 days). The results are shown in Table 2:

Table 2

As can be seen from the above table, the average weight of broilers at the time of slaughter in the experimental group exceeded the average weight of broilers in the control group by 0.284 kg or 12.5%.

An investigation on the change and reduction of the feed conversion ratio has been also undertaken.

A feed conversion ratio is the ratio of the amount of feed spent per unit product produced (for example, to 1 kg of weight gain, 1 liter of milk, etc.). Thus, the greater the conversion ratio, the more feed one needs to spend on the production of poultry products. A lower conversion ratio indicates a lower cost of growing poultry products in relation to the cost of feed.

The feed conversion ratio depends on two main physiological processes in the organism of animals: the absorbency of the feed and gastrointestinal digestion. These processes are influenced by a number of factors, which are combined into two groups. The first one stems from the factors related to feed: the structure of the diet and the properties of the feed (full value of the diet, a set of feed, its quality, the use of balancing additives, etc.), the second group includes peculiarities of animal digestion. Under an industrial experiment in two separate poultry houses, the same feed was supplied in full measure. The only difference was drinking water. In the experimental group, water was supplied continuously and only with the addition of the disinfectant (from the first to the last day of poultry rearing), but the control group was supplied with ordinary tap water that meets all the quality standards of drinking tap water. The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3

As can be seen from the table, the reduction in feed conversion ratio in the experimental group was 6.28% (1.64 compared with 1.75 in the control group).

A positive indicator of the method of treating drinking water for broilers is the increase of their survival.

For all 40 days of broiler breeding, the natural death of chickens was observed in both the control and experimental groups.

Table 4

The greatest mortality was observed in both groups up to 14 days of breeding, then it decreased and stabilized. At the end of the breeding period, as can be seen from the table above, the survival rate of the experimental group was 98%, which is 0.7% higher than in the control group.

Another objective assessment of the achievement of the claimed technical result is the improvement of the European productivity index (EPI). This index reflects the most important indicators, in particular, the live weight of the birds, viability, feed intake. Below is the formula for calculating the European productivity index.

KIM = ALW x V x lOO

RP x FI

where EPI is the European productivity index,

ALW is the average live weight, kg

V is viability, %,

RP is the rearing period, days,

FI is the feed intake per 1 kg of weight gain, kg.

The data on the productivity index for the experimental and control groups of birds are given in Table 5.

Table 5

As can be seen from the table, the European index of productivity of the experimental group is higher by 70 points compared to the control group (385 vs. 315), which is 22.22%.

Another undoubted advantage of the claimed method is the reduction of the risk of cross-infection of chickens through the litter, which is explained by the decrease in bacteria in the feces due to the disinfection of the intestines of the birds.

The invention will be further described by way of a specific embodiment. EXAMPLE

To obtain a disinfectant, glacial acetic acid at 99% concentration, hydrogen peroxide 50% solution, and a stabilizer, for example, HEDP, is mixed with a small amount of distilled water and placed in a reservoir, which is filled with a required amount of a hydrogen peroxide 50% solution and glacial acetic acid at 99% concentration both added in a required sequence. The resulting mixture was incubated for 14 days until the formation of peracetic acid with a concentration of 15 ± 2 wt. parts and hydrogen peroxide of 11 ± 2 wt. parts.

A dosing device is connected to the water supply system in the poultry-house. A pump is connected by a pipeline to the tank with the disinfectant and the pump is equipped with a gas outlet system, which allows removal of gas bubbles from the disinfectant, and the liquid disinfectant in the required volume is dispensed to the pipeline with zero error due to bubbles. A water meter is also embedded in the water supply. The link“water meter-pump-dispenser” allows for automatic adjustment of the frequency of the disinfectant supply by the dispenser depending on the decrease or increase in the amount of water passing per unit time through the water meter.

Before the experiment, statistics is studied (which is maintained at each poultry-house) for the last 6-12 months for diseases, for weight gain, for mortality. Also, statistics of bacteriological purity of water is used for the last 12 months. In addition, 7-10 days before the experiment, a water control is taken and passed for examination in a bacteriological laboratory. According to the results of statistical data and the results of laboratory studies of water, a conclusion is made about the necessary concentration of the disinfectant in water for conducting an industrial experiment.

For the experiment, Ross 421 broiler chickens were taken in mixed-sex flocks. Experimental and control groups were placed on the same day in neighboring poultry-houses of the same size (area).

Each house was populated by 26190 one-day old chicks. The birds were kept under identical conditions, except for drinking water. The control group was supplied with ordinary tap water, and the experimental group was supplied with tap water containing the disinfectant at 0.040% concentration during the whole period of broiler growth (40 days).

On day 7, fecal samples were taken from the litter in the experimental and control groups and submitted to bacteriological tests for the presence of Salmonella and E. coll. In the experimental group, quantitative indicators of the presence of bacteria were lower than in the control group, but higher than would be desirable. Therefore, it was decided to increase the concentration of the disinfectant in water to 0.060%. After 7 days, the sampling was repeated and, accordingly, the results were obtained from the laboratory, which confirmed the correct selection of concentration for the experimental group.

The final results from the laboratory showed that the use of the disinfectant in drinking water (with absolutely identical other conditions) resulted in the reduction of Salmonella by a factor of 78, E. coli by a factor of 2.2, and the total bacterial contamination by a factor of 3.9 in the experimental group.

Thus, in the experimental group, more healthy broilers were obtained. In this group, other results were obtained, which were confirmed after slaughter. Thus, the survival rate in the experimental group was higher, the average weight of broilers was significantly higher (by 12.5%), while the conversion rate in the experimental group was 6.28% lower. The European productivity index in the experimental group was higher than in the control group by 22.22%.

These figures show that healthier chickens (due to the daily consumption of the disinfectant in drinking water) provide higher consumer indicators of the products obtained.

Thus, the inventive method of treating drinking water for poultry, in particular broilers, performed continuously, has a number of advantages discussed above, which confirm its high efficiency.

Claims

1. A method of treating drinking water to be supplied to poultry in the course of raising thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

reacting glacial acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a stabilizer to provide a reaction product,

letting the reaction product stand until an effective amount of peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide as active ingredients is formed in the reaction product to thereby obtain a disinfectant;

providing a continuous flow of drinking water to be supplied to poultry, continuously adding the disinfectant to the water flow until the concentration of the disinfectant in the water is in the range from 0.025% to 0.065 % to thereby obtain the flow of treated drinking water, and

maintaining the flow of treated water to poultry in the course of raising thereof.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the effective amount of peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the disinfectant is determined within the range of 13 to 17 parts by weight of peracetic acid and

9 to 13 parts by weight of hydrogen peroxide.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the stabilizer is hydroxyethylidene diphosphonic acid (HEDP).

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the steps of providing a continuous flow of drinking water and continuously adding the disinfectant are carried out in automatic mode, the amount of the disinfectant and the frequency of adding thereof to the water flow being controlled by a metering device.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the metering device is supplied with a degasser.