Risk Mitigation of Poultry Industry Pollutants and Waste for Environmental Safety
Poultry waste such as litter, offal, feather and major micro environmental pollutants like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous cause major threats to the micro environment, if not mitigated properly. Over the past few decades, adoption of intensive rearing of birds has increased the load of micro environmental pollutants. These could disturb the ecological balance by polluting ground water, air and soil. In poultry, excess amounts of ammonia leads to reduction in growth rate, decrease in egg production, lower air quality and damages in upper respiratory tract. It induces infectious diseases like Newcastle disease, air sacculitis and keratoconjunctivitis. Potential strategies are now available to reduce these pollutants load by physical, chemical and biological approaches. Nitrogen pollution can be managed by dietary manipulation and chemical neutralization. Methane produced by anaerobic fermentation of poultry waste can be used profitably as biogas. Phosphorous runoff in agricultural fields can be prevented mainly by using phytase enzyme, salt precipitation, and also by vegetative filter strips. Increasing emission of harmful pollutants like ammonia, phenol, toluene, methanol, etc., in the atmosphere results in obnoxious odour decreasing bird’s productivity. It can be reduced by various odour reduction methods like providing proper ventilation, shed temperature, wind break walls etc. Poultry waste can also be used positively as feather meal, biodiesel, electricity generator, biodegradable plastic, vermicompost etc.
