Saturday , AM , ENVIRONMENT AND MANAGEMENT A 1 Effect of Hydrated Lime on Selected

S POULTRY SCIENCE ASSOCIATION August 18–20, 2000 Montreal, Quebec, Canada * Author Presenting Paper Saturday, AM, ENVIRONMENT AND MANAGEMENT A 1 Effect of Hydrated Lime on Selected Litter Microflora and Poult Growth Performance. D.D. Stanush*1, R. Beltran1, C.M. Corsiglia2, D.J. Caldwell1, and B.M. Hargis1, 1Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, TX/ USA, 2Cargill Foods, Waco, TX/USA. Recently, we demonstrated that 10 or 20% (wt:v) hydrated lime in used poultry litter significantly reduced Salmonella enteritidis survival in vitro. Preliminary studies with day-of-hatch poults suggested that lime in excess of 5% (wt:v) in new litter caused mild but apparent ocular and respiratory irritation and were not further evaluated. Presently, we evaluated the effect of lower concentrations of hydrated lime in new dry pine wood shavings (0, .2, 1, or 5% wt:v) on recovery of Salmonella, Campylobacter, coliforms, total aerobic colony forming units (CFU) and poult performance (hatch to 7 weeks). Day-old poults were wing banded and 50 poults were randomly assigned to 2 pens (54 sq.ft.) per treatment, maintained at an age-appropriate temperature, and provided with feed (formulated to meet or exceed NRC recommendations) and water ad libitum. At 3 and 7 weeks-of-age each turkey was weighed and litter samples were obtained (n=4/pen) for evaluation of Salmonella and Campylobacter recovery, and coliform and total aerobe enumeration. At 3 weeks of age, incorporation of lime at the selected concentrations did not significantly effect Salmonella or Campylobacter recovery as compared to untreated controls. However, incorporation of either 0.2 or 1% lime significantly reduced total aerobic CFUs as compared to untreated controls. While lime did not affect body weight at 3 weeks-of-age, at 7 weeks of age, turkeys from lime-treated pens (either 0.2 or 1%) were significantly (p<.05) heavier (219 gm/bird) than turkeys grown in control pens. Ammonia levels were determined at 7 weeks but were not different at the level of litter between treatments (<5 PPM). While incorporation of lime at the selected concentrations did not affect Camplyobacter or Salmonella recovery, lime did reduce overall aerobic CFU and significantly increased weight gain in this experiment, possibly through reduction of other low level pathogens.