Jan. 23, 2009 – We all have seen so many articles in poultry magazines, fact sheets and websites discussing water from different aspects.
We all have seen so many articles in poultry magazines, fact sheets and websites discussing water from different aspects. Supplying an adequate quantity of high quality water is very important to bird health and production performance. Monitoring of water consumption, as it also relates to feed intake, can be a useful tool for evaluation of a poultry flock’s status (1).
It is recommended that poultry drinking water should be regularly tested for microbial (total bacterial count and coliform bacteria) and chemical characteristics including pH, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sodium, sulfate, iron, and nitrates (2).
This becomes even more important if vaccination through drinking water is a common practice in a poultry farm. Another important point regarding water quality is regular cleaning of water lines.
Considering all these issues, I think that we are usually not as concerned about water as we are about feed in poultry farms. Why?
How often do you take water samples and send them to lab for chemical and microbial analyses?
(1)http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/newsletter/newsletter_july04.pdf
(2)http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/tech_manuals/drinking_water_quality.html
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