Evaluating the effects of sanitizing drinker lines in commercial broiler houses on the water quality and microbial content in biofilm layers

<p>The importance of water quality and its ability to cause major impacts, whether it is positive or negative, is often overlooked in the poultry industry. The microbial content of water is just one of many water characteristics that need to be monitored and regulated to ensure a flock is receiving good quality water. A field study was conducted to determine the effects of four different sanitizers under commercial broiler house conditions, with three replications over a three flock period. Each flock was grown for 56 days with a 2 week period between each flock. Four oxidative sanitizers were used and assigned to one of four commercial broiler houses at the Stephen F. Austin State University Broiler Research Center. Two water lines within each house were cleaned with the assigned product prior to placement for three consecutive flocks, leaving two water lines per house that were used as control groups. Water and swab samples were collected from all four water lines within each house after sanitizing on day 0, prior to flock placement and again on day 56, prior to the end of the flock. Total data points represent six sampling periods.</p> <p> These samples were analyzed by the Pilgrim’s Walker Creek Lab for aerobic plate count (APC), <em>Escherichia coli</em>, and yeast and mold counts(YM). Results showed that there was a significant decrease in the means of APC and YM counts over the period of three flocks, P = 0.0009 for swab results and P = 0.0032 for water results. There was a significant difference in the effects between two sanitizers compared to the others, P = 0.0155. There was a significant difference in the means of APC and YM counts according to the day in which samples were collected, P = 0.0017. No significant differences were observed for the means of <em>Escherichia coli </em>counts, which remained consistent throughout the entire trial at 10 colony forming units or less.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science - Agriculture

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agriculture

Year dc:date.available

2019

Author dc:creator

• Achilles, Kennedi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Joey Bray
• John Michael Mehaffey
• Stephanie Jones

• E. coli
• Water Quality
• Biofilms
• Broiler
• Sanitizer

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/242

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1306