EFFECT OF NEGATIVE AIR IONIZATION ON AMBIENT PARTICULATES IN A HATCHING CABINET

Abstract

Hatching cabinets are known to be one of the primary sources for salmonella contamination of poultry. Aconsiderable amount of dust is generated during the hatching process from the time of piping on day 20 through finalhatching on day 21. The dust is caused by the breaking up of egg shells and feather particles which are entrained into theair from the new chicks as they move around. Previous research has demonstrated that a single salmonella contaminatedegg could contaminate all eggs and newly hatched chicks in a hatching cabinet.<br><br>Two configurations of negative air ionizers were tested for their ability to remove inhalable particulates from air in apoultry hatching cabinet to determine their potential for reducing airborne disease transmission. The treatments wereapplied to ambient dust which was found to have high particle counts in the inhalable range. Measurements were madewith a laser particle counter which had six ranges (0.3-0.5, 0.5-1, 1-5, 5-10, 10-25, and > 25 microns).<br><br>Significant (P 0.05) reductions in particle counts were achieved with the six-bar RIS (Room Ionizer System) whichremoved particles with efficiencies which averaged 92.9% for particles up to 10 microns and 90.8% for particles10 microns and larger. Significant (P 0.05) reductions in particle counts were also achieved with the three-bar RISwhich had an average particle reduction efficiency of 80.1% for particles up to 10 microns and 83.1% for particles 10microns and larger. The overall efficiency of the six-Bar RIS was very close to that of a 95% media filter (92.2% vs91.5%). Reduction of reentrainment by turning off the blower (24 cm diameter, five-blade axial blower running at 2700rpm and 0.13 m3/min ventilation rate in a 1.33 m3 cabinet) resulted in additional significant (P 0.05) dust reduction andefficiencies of approximately 99% suggesting future cabinet designs use reduced air velocities. The effectiveness of theionizers for removing dust and knowledge that most airborne microorganisms are found on particles larger than3 microns suggest that this type of system has significant potential for reducing airborne transmission of disease inhatching cabinets.