Application of the fermented broiler chickens manure under different aeration regimes during vermiculture cultivation

Abstract

The growth of poultry population in Ukraine and in the world leads to a number of environmental problems such as concentration and accumulation of large masses of manure without litter and manure mixed with organic litter. A rational way to dispose poultry manure, including broiler chickens’ manure, is to produce vermicompost from it by growing there a hybrid of local red worm or Eisenia fetida. Unfermented broiler manure contains a high concentration of nitrogen-containing compounds, including ammonia, which has a negative effect on worms. Even at low ammonia concentrations in the organic biomass, the worms die. Traditional methods can take more than 17 months to compost broiler manure. One of the ways to speed up composting is to apply bioprocessing devices and aeration of the manure. The effectiveness of growing vermiculture on the fermented broiler manure with a biodegrader and different aeration regimes remains insufficiently studied. For the experimental cultivation of worms, we used the broiler chicken manure fermented for 160 days, which was enriched with air once every 10 days by mechanical mixing (control), 15 minutes a day using a compressor (I experimental group) and twice a day for 15 minutes using a compressor (II experimental group). The study determined the number of adult and immature worms, their weight, the number of cocoons and their weight. It has been experimentally found that fermented broiler chicken manure under different aeration regimes with litter as part of the vermiculture substrate has an effect on the reproduction and weight of worms and their cocoons. Growing worms on a substrate from fermented broiler chickens' litter with a daily one-time air enrichment with a compressor increases the number of mature worms by 15.7 % compared to the control group. The largest mass of mature worms was recorded in the first experimental group. It was proved that the use of fermented broiler manure with active aeration (experimental group I) as a substrate increased the number and weight of immature worms by 10.3 and 33.3 %, respectively, compared to the control. The largest number of cocoons has been found in the first experimental group.