Amino compounds in poultry litter, litter-amended soil and plants

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019

Chicken litter application on land as an organic fertilizer is the cheapest and most environmentally safe method of disposing of the volume generated from the rapidly expanding poultry industry worldwide. However, little is known about the safety of chicken litter for land application and general release into the environment. Bridging this knowledge gap is crucial for maximizing the benefits of chicken litter as an organic fertilizer and mitigating negative impacts on human and environmental health. The key safety concerns of chicken litter are its contamination with pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, helminthes, parasitic protozoa, and viruses; antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes; growth hormones such as egg and meat boosters; heavy metals; and pesticides. Despite the paucity of literature about chicken litter safety for land application, the existing information was scattered and disjointed in various sources, thus making them not easily accessible and difficult to interpret. We consolidated scattered pieces of information about known contaminants found in chicken litter that are of potential risk to human, animal, and environmental health and how they are spread. This review tested the hypothesis that in its current form, chicken litter does not meet the minimum standards for application as organic fertilizer. The review entails a meta-analysis of technical reports, conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles, and internet texts. Our findings indicate that direct land application of chicken litter could be harming animal, human, and environmental health. For example, counts of pathogenic strains of Eschericia coli (10 5-10 10 CFU g −1) and Coliform bacteria (10 6-10 8 CFU g −1) exceeded the maximum permissible limits (MPLs) for land application. In Australia, 100% of broiler litter tested was contaminated with Actinobacillus and re-used broiler litter was more contaminated with Salmonella than non-re-used broiler litter. Similarly, in the US, all (100%) broiler litter was contaminated with Eschericia coli containing genes resistant to over seven antibiotics, particularly amoxicillin, ceftiofur, tetracycline, and sulfonamide. Chicken litter is also contaminated with a vast array of antibiotics and heavy metals. There are no standards set specifically for chicken litter for most of its known contaminants. Even where standards exist for related products such as compost, there is wide variation across countries and bodies mandated to set standards for safe disposal of organic wastes. More rigorous studies are needed to ascertain the level of contamination in chicken litter from both broilers and layers, especially in developing countries where there is hardly any data; set standards for all the contaminants; and standardize these standards across all agencies, for safe disposal of chicken litter on land. Keywords: antibiotic residues; chicken litter contaminants; growth hormones; heavy metals; human; animal and environmental health; pathogenic microorganisms phosphorus, which may pollute freshwater bodies [8]. Chicken litter is contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasitic protozoa, and helminthes; antibiotics and pathogenic microbes with antibiotic-resistant genes; heavy metals; growth and sex hormones such as estrogen, specifically 17β-estradiol, and testosterone; and pesticides such as dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [9]. A contaminant is an element, compound, substance, organism, or form of energy which, through its presence or concentration, causes adverse effect(s) on the natural environment or impairs human use of the environment [10]. Pathogens are organisms, including certain bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites capable of causing disease in susceptible host organisms, including humans, animals, or plants [10]. However, information on chicken litter safety remains scattered in various technical reports, conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles, and internet texts. Moreover, each of the scattered pieces of information reports only a fraction of the contaminants without necessarily being exhaustive and any standard permissible levels for the litter considered safe for land application. Standards exist for other related organic soil conditioners such as compost and mulches but with significant variations in limits of these contaminants for the soil conditioners considered safe for land application. This makes it difficult to guide farmers on proper and safe land application of chicken litter to restore productivity of degraded soils. For instance, The State of Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry outlines major contaminants in chicken litter, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, antibiotics, growth hormones, and heavy metals [11] but without delving exhaustively into examples of contaminants under each category. Jenkins et al. [9] provide fairly exhaustive information but only about zoonotic pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, protozoan parasites, and helminthes, without mentioning fungal contaminants in chicken litter; the authors are silent on fungal contaminants in chicken litter. Lu et al. [12] investigated microbial composition of broiler litter using 16S rRNA and functional gene maker, and also reported about microbial contaminants of enteric bacteria only. In a related study in Portugal, Veigas et al. [13] focused mainly on fungal contaminants of fresh litter and aged broilers. Chen and Jiang [14], in their review on microbiological safety of chicken litter, focused on pathogenic bacteria. Graffins [15] concentrated only on pathogenic bacterial and arsenic contaminants. Terzich et al. [16] in the USA focused on bacteria alone. Even a report by Runge et al. [17], which was fairly detailed by identifying more types of pathogens that are highly risky and their infectious doses (ID50) and their control measures, gives a long list of pathogens without categorizing as to which is viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic protozoa, which can be confusing. Runge et al. [17] do not provide threshold levels for other chicken litter contaminants such as heavy metals, antibiotics, and growth hormones in soil, crops, and drinking water bodies. Even a literature review on contaminants in livestock and poultry manure in the US by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) was limited only to the hormones, antimicrobials, and pathogens [18]. This review, therefore, consolidated scattered pieces of information regarding all known and reported contaminants in chicken litter of potential risk to human, animal, and environmental health, their means of entry into the litter, spread in the environment, and variation in the maximum permissible limits across the different bodies and agencies mandated to set such standards locally and internationally as a quantifiable indicator of the

Open Journal of Soil Science

Water extractable organic carbon (WEOC) and nitrogen (WEON) are two key parameters of soil water extractable organic matter (WEOM). Proper management of manure application rate in combination with tillage and cropping management could maintain appropriate WEOC and WEON concentrations in soils while decreasing the risk of their runoff from cropland and pastures. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of poultry litter (PL) application on WEOC and WEON in soils under different crops, tillage regimes, and grazing strategies. From 2001 to 2012, PL was applied at multiple rates to cultivated fields in a corn-oat/wheat-hay rotation or to pastures grazed by cattle or ungrazed. Soil samples (0-15 cm) were analyzed for KCl-extractable mineral N, and WEOC, and WEON contents. In addition, Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) and fluorescence spectroscopies were used to characterize WEOC stability. Organic N levels were higher at the high PL application rates. The soil C:N ratio narrowed as the PL application rate increased. However, the soil from pastures which received PL tended to have a wider range of C:N ratios than soil from the cultivated fields, despite identical PL application rates. The spectral analyses indicated that WEOC properties were responsive to management and PL application rate; therefore, this parameter may be used as a guide to provide best management strategy for manure application.

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

Meta-analysis is a statistical technique used to analyze large datasets containing results from numerous individual studies. It appears to be a promising approach in agricultural sciences. This study aimed to conduct a meta-analytic assessment to elucidate the influence of poultry litter (PL) application on crop yield, plant nutrient uptake, and soil fertility as compared to inorganic fertilizer (IF). A meta-analysis based on 116 studies (111 refereed articles and five unpublished data sets) with 2293 observations compared agronomic responses to PL and IF application. The natural log of the response ratio was used as effect size (ES) to express differences in the effects of PL and IF. The variances of estimated effects were estimated using within-study and betweenstudy variation and were used to calculate a weighting factor. A random-effects model was used to test if the ES was significantly different from zero (α= 0.05).

Soil Science, 2009

The broiler (Gallus gallus domesticus) industry generates large quantities of nutrient-and trace metalYenriched litter. Broiler litter (BL) is typically land applied as a nutrient source for forages. Continual annual BL applications can increase nutrient and trace metal concentrations in soil over time, creating the potential for negative environmental impacts. The objective of this study was to determine the long-term effects of BL application rate on soil profile chemical properties in a Captina silt loam (fine-silty, siliceous, active, mesic, Typic Fragiudult) with a history of BL applications. Broiler litter was applied annually at 0, 5.6, and 11.2 Mg of dry weightYbased litter ha j1 during a 5-year period. Soil was sampled in 10-cm increments to 90 cm and characterized for pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter, dissolved organic C, P saturation, and acid-recoverable (P

Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo, 2012

Year-round PoultrY litter decomPosition and n, P, K and ca release 1043 r. Bras. ci. solo, 36: [1043][1044][1045][1046][1047][1048][1049][1050][1051][1052][1053] 2012 Year-round PoultrY litter decomPosition and n, P, K and ca release (1) christiano santos rocha Pitta (2) , Paulo Fernando adami (2) , adelino Pelissari (2) , tangriani simioni assmann (3) , marcia Fernanda

Pedosphere, 2019

Sustainable agricultural practices have been steadily increasing in the last couple of decades. These management practices frequently involve cover crops, less or no-tillage, and organic fertilization. In this study, we evaluated the effects of cropping systems, tillage and no-tillage, and the application of poultry litter (PL) on selected soil physicochemical properties and soil test nutrients. Soil samples were collected from the topmost surface (0-5 cm) and subsurface (5-10 cm) layers. The general effect trend was PL application > no-tillage > cover crop > cropping type. There were more statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) correlations between the 18 soil attributes at the topmost surface than at the subsurface. This could be due to the accumulation of external C inputs and nutrients by crop residues and PL application as well as the retaining effects of no-tillage on less mobile nutrient components. Because of their high mobility and volatile nature, total nitrogen (N), ammonia-N (NH + 4-N), and nitrate-N (NO − 3-N) levels varied greatly (high standard deviations), showing no consistent patterns among the treatments. Compared to the soybean cropping system, corn, especially with the wheat cover crop, contributed more to the total carbon (C) and sulfur (S) in the topmost surface soils (0-5 cm). Poultry litter application greatly increased pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), base saturation, magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), potassium (K), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) in both soil layers. Contrast comparisons revealed that PL application had more of an effect on these soil chemical properties than no-tillage and cropping systems. These results will shed light on developing better nutrient management practices while reducing their runoff potentials.

2008

Application of animal manures or composts to soils increases soil carbon levels and improves soil physical properties. However, there is little information on the duration of these effects after manure or compost applications cease. We evaluated the four-year residual effects of applying poultry litter (PL) and composted poultry litter (CPL) at < 4 Mg ha -1 application -1 on soil carbon fractions and other soil properties in low input crop rotations. We sampled soil in 2001, which was four years after PL and CPL were last applied in wheat-soybean-corn rotations fertilized with 1) NPK mineral fertilizers (MF) only, 2) PL supplemented with MF, and 3) CPL supplemented with MF. Soil bulk density was greater in MF than in PL and CPL systems compared to initial values (P < 0.10) four years after PL and CPL were last applied. There were no differences among systems in total soil C and N or in active and slow soil C pool sizes four years after PL and CPL were last applied. The size of...

Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management, 2014

This study examined the effects of different treatments of poultry faecal matter on potential greenhouse gas emission and its field application. Poultry litters were randomly assigned to four treatments viz; salt solution, alum, air exclusion and the control (untreated). Alum treated faeces had higher (p<0.05) percentage nitrogen retention than salt and air-tight treatments, which had higher (p<0.05) moisture content when compared with the control. The pH level was lowest in alum treated faecal matter (6.03, p<0.05), and highest in the control (7.37, p<0.05). Similarly, alum treated feaces had significantly lower mean temperature (28.58 o C, p<0.05) control, salt and air-tight treatments, with air-tight treated feaces having the highest temperature (29.44 0 C, p<0.05). Nitrogen depletion rate was significant lower (p<0.05) in alum treated feacal matter than in salt and air-tight treatments. Post-storage, samples treated with alum increased substantially (≥46.51%) in total microbial count, total viable count was lower (p>0.05; 2.83×10 6 cfu/ml) in air-excluded treatment. Maize seeds planted on alum treated and air-excluded litter soils had an average germination percentage (GP) range of 65 -75% and 54 -75%, respectively. These figures were found to be mildly comparable to the control which averaged a germination index of 75%. Sorghum plots recorded a mean value of 99% GP on alum treated soil two weeks after planting, slightly surpassing air-tight treated soils with mean value of 89% GP. Average maize height was 48cm and 23cm for alum and air-tight treatment, respectively after 21 days of planting, in contrast to mean height of 25cm on the sorghum plots. Seeds planted on salt treated plots did not germinate. The study suggests that alum treated poultry litter was superior in mitigating the tendency for nitrogenous losses as evident in its lower nitrogen depletion rate, pH, weight, temperature and potential field application index.

Agronomy, 2012

Problems arising from conventional tillage (CT) systems (such as soil erosion, decrease of organic matter, environmental damage etc.) have led many farmers to the adoption of no-till (NT) systems that are more effective in improving soil physical, chemical and microbial properties. Results from this study clearly indicated that NT, mulch tillage (MT), and winter rye cover cropping systems increased the activity of phosphatase, β-glucosidase and arylsulfatase at a 0-10 cm soil depth but decreased the activity of these enzymes at 10-20 cm. The increase in enzyme activity was a good indicator of intensive soil microbial activity in different soil management practices. Poultry litter (PL) application under NT, MT, and rye cropping system could be considered as effective management practices due to the improvement in carbon (C) content and the biochemical quality at the soil surface. The activities of the studied enzymes were highly correlated with soil total nitrogen (STN) soil organic carbon (SOC) at the 0-10 cm soil depth, except for acid phosphatase where no correlation was observed. This study revealed that agricultural practices such as tillage, PL, and cover crop cropping system have a noticeable positive effect on soil biochemical activities under cotton production.

2012

Problems arising from conventional tillage (CT) systems (such as soil erosion, decrease of organic matter, environmental damage etc.) have led many farmers to the adoption of no-till (NT) systems that are more effective in improving soil physical, chemical and microbial properties. Results from this study clearly indicated that NT, mulch tillage (MT), and winter rye cover cropping systems increased the activity of phosphatase, β-glucosidase and arylsulfatase at a 0-10 cm soil depth but decreased the activity of these enzymes at 10-20 cm. The increase in enzyme activity was a good indicator of intensive soil microbial activity in different soil management practices. Poultry litter (PL) application under NT, MT, and rye cropping system could be considered as effective management practices due to the improvement in carbon (C) content and the biochemical quality at the soil surface. The activities of the studied enzymes were highly correlated with soil total nitrogen (STN) soil organic carbon (SOC) at the 0-10 cm soil depth, except for acid phosphatase where no correlation was observed. This study revealed that agricultural practices such as tillage, PL, and cover crop cropping system have a noticeable positive effect on soil biochemical activities under cotton production.