Effect of pH-lowering litter amendment on animal-based welfare indicators and litter quality in a European commercial broiler husbandry

Toppel, Kathrin; Kaufmann, Falko; Schön, H; Gauly, Matthias; Andersson, Robby

doi:10.3382/ps/pey489

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The high mortality rate due to ascites in the control experiment indicated that the conditions of the experiment may have predisposed the birds to this condition. Other studies in more controlled experimental conditions found no difference in the mortality rates from treated and untreated groups (McWard and Taylor 2000;Nagaraj et al 2007;Williams and Macklin 2013), although, in a field trial, the mortality rate was higher in sodium bisulfate group (2.79-2.88%) than in the control (2.03-2.27%; Toppel et al 2019aToppel et al , 2019b. Foot-pad lesions were at least 10% lower for groups treated once or twice with sodium bisulfate during the rearing period than they were in untreated groups (Nagaraj et al 2007;Williams and Macklin 2013;Toppel et al 2019b).…”

Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 84%

“…Other studies in more controlled experimental conditions found no difference in the mortality rates from treated and untreated groups (McWard and Taylor 2000;Nagaraj et al 2007;Williams and Macklin 2013), although, in a field trial, the mortality rate was higher in sodium bisulfate group (2.79-2.88%) than in the control (2.03-2.27%; Toppel et al 2019aToppel et al , 2019b. Foot-pad lesions were at least 10% lower for groups treated once or twice with sodium bisulfate during the rearing period than they were in untreated groups (Nagaraj et al 2007;Williams and Macklin 2013;Toppel et al 2019b). Treatment with sodium bisulfate has been shown to increase bodyweight in some experimental studies (Terzich et al 1998b;McWard and Taylor 2000), while other experimental studies (Nagaraj et al 2007;Williams and Macklin 2013) and a field study at commercial farm with 240 000 birds (Toppel et al 2019a(Toppel et al , 2019b found no difference between treated and control groups.…”

Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 84%

“…Foot-pad lesions were at least 10% lower for groups treated once or twice with sodium bisulfate during the rearing period than they were in untreated groups (Nagaraj et al 2007;Williams and Macklin 2013;Toppel et al 2019b). Treatment with sodium bisulfate has been shown to increase bodyweight in some experimental studies (Terzich et al 1998b;McWard and Taylor 2000), while other experimental studies (Nagaraj et al 2007;Williams and Macklin 2013) and a field study at commercial farm with 240 000 birds (Toppel et al 2019a(Toppel et al , 2019b found no difference between treated and control groups. Air-sac scores and damage to cells within trachea were found to be significantly improved for birds raised on the sodium bisulfate-treated litter (Terzich et al 1998b).…”

Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 94%

“…In some studies, use of sodium bisulfate as a litter amendment has been shown to improve bird welfare and performance when used at a low rate of application such as 0.24 kg/m 2 (Terzich et al 1998a(Terzich et al , 1998b or 0.25-0.15 kg/m 2 (Toppel et al 2019a(Toppel et al , 2019b. Death rate due to ascites, which is a commonly found disease in meat chickens, was found to be 5.9% when sodium bisulfate was applied to litter, which was a significant reduction on the 31.5% for the control (Terzich et al 1998a).…”

Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

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Suitability of litter amendments for the Australian chicken meat industry

et al. 2020

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The Australian chicken meat indutstry is rapidly expanding due to the increasing consumption of chicken meat. As a result, the industry has growing issues of sourcing new bedding materials and disposing of spent litter, which can be attributed, in part, to a lack of widespread litter re-use for rearing chickens. According to insights and perspectives recently gathered from industry stakeholders, it is believed that re-using litter will become more common in the future, so as to reduce production costs and ease pressures on both the supply of new bedding materials and disposal of spent litter. However, there are potential risks that need to be addressed if litter re-use increases, particularly with regard to the production and mitigation of ammonia, which can negatively affect chicken health if not managed correctly. The present review discusses the potential benefits reported for different types of litter amendments, which have the primary goal of reducing ammonia volatilisation, but may also contribute to improvements in bird performance, welfare, pathogen loads, fertiliser value of spent litter, and reduced costs associated with purchasing new bedding materials. Acidifiers have been shown to be the most effective of all amendment types, with sodium bisulfate or alum being among the most commonly tested products mentioned in research literature. Litter amendments are currently rarely used in Australia, but it is hoped that the information provided in the present review, based mostly on overseas usage and research, will help inform future decision-making on the use of these products in Australian poultry production systems.

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Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Bird Performance and Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Suitability of litter amendments for the Australian chicken meat industry

et al. 2020

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“…This can be explained by a possible interest of scientists in addressing leg abnormalities. Locomotor problems in broilers are often correlated with litter quality [84][85][86][87][88][89][90], since the ammonia excreted by the animals can provoke lesions in their feet. Additionally, they can be consequence of the high growth rate of animals [91][92][93][94] and of the increasing genetic selection for heavier major pectoralis muscle [56,65,95].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Are Information Technologies Addressing Broiler Welfare? A Systematic Review Based on the Welfare Quality® Assessment

et al. 2020

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This systematic review aims to explore how information technologies (ITs) are currently used to monitor the welfare of broiler chickens. The question posed for the review was “which ITs are related to welfare and how do they monitor this for broilers?”. The Welfare Quality® (WQ) protocol for broiler assessment was utilized as a framework to analyse suitable articles. A total of 57 studies were reviewed wherein all principles of broiler welfare were addressed. The “good health” principle was the main criteria found to be addressed by ITs and IT-based studies (45.6% and 46.1%, respectively), whereas the least observed principle was “good feeding” (8.8%). This review also classified ITs and IT-based studies by their utilization (location, production system, variable measured, aspect of production, and experimental/practical use). The results show that the current focus of ITs is on problems with conventional production systems and that less attention has been given to free-range systems, slaughterhouses, and supply chain issues. Given the valuable results evidenced by the exploitation of ITs, their use in broiler production should continue to be encouraged with more attention given to farmer adoption strategies.

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Succession patterns of the bacterial community in poultry litter after bird removal and sodium bisulfate application

et al. 2021

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Sulfate-based acid amendments are used for treating litter between broiler chicken flocks and during grow-out for in-house ammonia abatement. These amendments reduce litter pH and inhibit ammonia volatilization by converting ammonia to nonvolatile ammonium. Research on the effects of acid amendments on litter microbiota is limited and usually done in microcosms, which do not replicate natural environments. In this study, we determined the changes in bacterial populations present in litter during downtime (the period after a flock was removed and before new broiler chicks were placed) and 24 h before and after the application of a sodium bisulfate (NaHSO 4 )-based amendment. We used DNA sequencing technologies to characterize the litter microbiota, elucidating microbial shifts in litter samples with respect to downtime, litter depth, and NaHSO 4 application. During downtime (∼18 d), the litter microbiota was dominated by Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. Sodium bisulfate affected the microbiota in the top layer (3 cm) of reused litter topdressed with fresh pine shavings and resulted in an increase in Escherichia spp. and Faecalibacterium spp. and a decrease in members of the phylum Acidobacteria. Furthermore, culturable Escherichia coli decreased by 1.5 log units during downtime, but an increase was observed for topdressed litter after NaHSO 4 was applied. Although the effect of acidifiers on ammonia reduction, bird performance, and litter performance are well documented, their effect on litter bacteria is not well understood. Our results suggest that acidifiers may perturb litter bacteria when topdressed with fresh pine shavings and that further research is required.

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Effect of pH-lowering litter amendment on animal-based welfare indicators and litter quality in a European commercial broiler husbandry

Cited by 22 publications

References 31 publications

Suitability of litter amendments for the Australian chicken meat industry

Suitability of litter amendments for the Australian chicken meat industry

How Are Information Technologies Addressing Broiler Welfare? A Systematic Review Based on the Welfare Quality® Assessment

Succession patterns of the bacterial community in poultry litter after bird removal and sodium bisulfate application

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