Toxicity identification of poultry litter aqueous leachate

Abstract

Poultry litter is a mixture of excreta, feed, feathers, and bedding material. Poultry litter is useful as a fertilizer due to the presence of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Litter is commonly used for growing corn, soybeans, potatoes, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, and cover crops. The aqueous leachate of poultry litter has been shown to exhibit toxicity to a variety of indicator organisms. The objective of this research was to identify classes of toxicants in the litter aqueous leachate. The aqueous extract of poultry litter was subjected to toxicity identification tests approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that use Ceriodaphnia dubia as the test organism. Tests performed included pH adjustment, filtration, aeration, C18 solid-phase extraction, EDTA addition, sodium thiosulfate addition, and extraction through zeolite. Zeolite extraction, filtration at low pH, and aeration at low pH reduced overall toxicity by 68, 20, and 22%, respectively. The major sources of toxicity appear to be ammonia and anionic organic compounds. Toxicity was apparently not due to the presence of heavy metals or oxidants.

Soil chemical properties and growth response of Moringa oleifera to different sources and rates of organic and NPK fertilizers

“…In this experiment, poultry manure applied at 20 tons ha -1 treated seedlings showed a significant (p [ 0.05) difference over other amendments and the control in terms of height, girth, number of leaves and leaf biomass; this observation was similar to Usman (2015) report, when he compared the performance of tomato crop treated with 20 tons ha -1 of cow dung, goat droppings and poultry manure, respectively; application of poultry manure (PM) resulted in the higher growth parameters and fruit yield of tomato plants. The increasing effects of PM on moringa development and soil properties in this study also corroborated the observation of Gupta et al (1997), Adeniyan and Ojeniyi (2005), Akanbi et al (2005), Adenawoola and Adejoro (2005) and Agyenim-Boateng et al (2006) that poultry manure is very rich animal manure that releases considerable soil organic matter, available P and exchangeable cations when applied to soil. Poultry manure contains all the essential plant nutrients that are used by plants; these include nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulphur (S), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), chlorine (Cl), boron (B), iron (Fe) and molybdenum (Mo) (Amanullah et al 2010).…”

Effect of poultry manure on the yield and nutriments uptake of potato under saline conditions of arid regions

“…These findings are in close agreement with the finding stating that poultry manure is very rich animal manure that boosts soil productivity better than other organic manures and gives considerable increase in organic C, available P and exchangeable cations (Gupta et al, 1997;Jinadasa et al, 1997). In fact, it is important to note that the positive effects of organic manures on plant growth are not only due to temporal availability of essential minerals but also attributable to the improvement of soil physical, chemical and biological characteristics (Lakhdar et al, 2008).…”

Efficacy of Supplemental Natural Zeolite in Broiler Chickens Subjected to Dietary Calcium Deficiency

“…Dietary addition of zeolite has also been shown to reduce the toxicity of litter ammonia and aflotoxins (Gupta et al, 1997), which are contaminants in feedstuffs such as wheat, corn, and soybean. Zeolite has anti-microbial activity against Salmonella spp.…”