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8 THE RURAL VOICE
Scrap Book
Researchers seek solution to
ammonia problems in poultry barns
If researchers in Canada and the
U.S. are on the right track, they
could help poultry farmers have
healthier, more efficient barns.
Researchers at Agriculture
Canada's Agassiz, B.C. research
station have designed a program
to add powdered aluminum
sulfate to the manure in poultry
barns in an effort to lower the
level of ammonia created.
Ammonia is suspected of wearing
down the health of the birds and
increasing the levels of suspended
particulates of pollution in the air
around areas such as the Fraser
Valley, where high densities of
poultry farms exist
Researchers Tom Scott and
Kevin Chipperfield are hoping the
project, set to end this month, will
show lower production costs can
be linked to efficiency. Powdered
aluminum sulphate (or alum) is
spread on the litters in barns and
is absorbed into the waste from
the birds.
During the study, levels of
ammonia will be measured before
and after the substance is applied
to floors of turkey barns. The
research has centred on turkeys
since they are more susceptible to
ammonia levels because they are
housed in barns three times longer
than chickens are kept
Ammonia problems vary,
depending on the design and age
of the barns, in addition to the
management abilities of the
producer.
So far similar programs in the
U.S. appear to be cost-effective
for broiler producers.
The project is designed to
eventually provide farmers with a
product they can purchase and use
in their barns, but that may not
happen for several years.
Chipperfield said increased
production should off -set the
additional costs involved.
Aluminum sulphate comes from
bauxite which is mined from the
earth in raw form, then treated
with sulfuric acid to form
sulfate.°
—Source: Western Producer
BSE could be spreading in Europe
According to the May 1 issue of New Scientist magazine, BSE or mad cow
disease, could be quietly spreading across Europe because farmers and
veterinarians are failing to report sick cows.
The magazine quoted officials across the continent as saying ignorance and
fear contributed to the spread, and it urged better checks of the disease (bovine
spongiform encephalopathy).
"Of course we have had (unreported) cases of BSE in Belgium," the magazine
quoted Emmanuel Vanopdenbosch of the National Institute for Veterinary
Research in Brussels as saying.
He said animals with strange symptoms of the central nervous system had
been slaughtered and often ended up on supermarket shelves. "Frankly, I am
worried," he said.
Scientists have suspected that meat from cattle affected with BSE may be
linked to a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a normally rare human
disease that is the human equivalent of BSE. The European Union banned British
exports a year ago to try to limit the disease to the island.
In Britain there had been 167,000 cases of BSE reported in the past decade
and many cattle or their products had been exported to Europe. New Scientist
quoted officials as saying given those imports, the expected number of European
cases had not turned up. "They were not reported," said Bram Schreuder, head of
BSE research at the Dutch Institute of Animal Science and Health. Since 57,900
British cattle were exported to the rest of Europe for breeding between 1985 and
1990, at least 1,688 of them should have become sick, Schreuder said.°
— Source: Reuter News Agency