Abstract
ABSTRACT This study was designed to evaluate the effects of chemical blend additives to duck litter on pH, ammonia (NH3) fluxes, total nitrogen (TN) under a small pen trial. One hundred twenty 1-day-old duck (pekin) were randomly assigned to 6 pens in a completely randomized design during 6 weeks. Control received no litter treatment whereas top-dressed treatment at rates of 50 g aluminum sulfate + 50 aluminum chloride/kg duck litter were mixed into the upper 1 cm of duck litter. Duck litter pH at 2 weeks through 5 weeks was significantly affected (p 0.05) between treatments at 0 and 1 week. Reductions of NH3 fluxes at 3, 4, 5 and 6 weeks were 31, 16, 29 and 24%, respectively. Chemical blend treatments as a function of time resulted in increase in TN contents compared with control. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in TN between treatments at 2 and 3 weeks, except for 4, 5 and 6 weeks. Chemical blend decreases NH3 fluxes and increases TN positively by reducing duck litter pH.
Highlights
Poultry litter is a mixture of poultry excreta, bedding materials waste feed, and feathers removed from poultry houses
Our studies indicate that litter additives were used as a positive control in efforts to evaluate chemical blends with alum and aluminum chloride
This observation was in line with that of Smith et al (2001), who reported that when alum and aluminum chloride was applied to pig manure, the low and high rates of alum and aluminum chloride dropped the pH to around 7.3 and under 7.0, respectably, while pH in the untreated manure was around 8.0
Summary
Poultry litter is a mixture of poultry excreta, bedding materials waste feed, and feathers removed from poultry houses It is used as an organic fertilizer because they have a high nitrogen contents and nutritional values. One must select litter treatment product to identify the goals for cost-effective and justifiable under one or more of the following situations: reduction of ammonia in poultry litter and prolonged litter reuse (Blake & Hess, 2001) Among these litter treatments, the effectiveness of aluminum sulfate (alum, Al2(SO4)3·14~18H2O) and aluminum chloride (AlCl3·6H2O) as a litter amendment in poultry houses has been recognized in several studies that reduce ammonia volatilization by lowering litter pH, phosphorus runoff and heavy metal runoff or increase bird performance and nitrogen (N) content (Li et al, 2008; Lim et al, 2008). Information on the efficacies of litter amendment blends on NH3 and
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