From WIEGAND@lufa-sp.vdlufa.de Wed Mar 22 07:35:08 2000 Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 10:22:23 +0200 From: Klaus Wiegand To: steved@ncatark.uark.edu, sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: Animals, Orchards, E. Coli [ The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] hello steve, >In response to Benbrooks post, I have a related question regarding >manure and E. Coli and orchard grazing systems. >What about grazing sheep in apple orchards? Does the >bad strain of E. coli, or any strain of E. coli have a particular >association with sheep? Or does the E. coli have a species >specific link to cows, hogs, chickens, geese, guineas, whatnot? geese and even more ducks are the animals with the highest risk for infection with e. coli and then spreading it. that's because of their special form of cloacae, which differs from these of other feathered animals. >Here I refer to publicity linking E. coli to raw apple cider. >Unfairly, the orchard in Oklahoma linked to E. coli sickness was >blamed for apple drops, yet they don't pick drops. then it's different from the apple cider in germany, switzerland and france. in these countries the cider is MOSTLY produced from dropped apples and not from picked ones, which are too valuable for making cider from them. >Is there a best management practice that says you can graze >orchards until 30 days or 60 days before harverst? In other >words, does E. coli breakdown outdoors etc. > >What about using raw poultry litter as a fertilizer for orchards? there were some cases, where orchards were watered with the "cleaned" water from sewage-plant-run-off further up the river. better check for that condition.. here's something about the lifetime duration of coli's: Authors Roesicke E. Greuel E. Title SURVIVAL OF SALMONELLA, COCCIDIA OOCYSTS AND ASCARIS EGGS IN MANURE OF CHICKEN IN DIFFERENT KINDS OF HOUSING SYSTEMS [German] Source Deutsche Tierarztliche Wochenschrift. 99(12):492-494, 1992 Dec. Abstract The time of survival of Salmonella typhimurium, coccidia oocysts and ascaris eggs in manure of layer was determined in 5 different housing systems and 2 storing places for litter. The experiments were carried out in a stable of experimental station Frankenforst of the university of Bonn with a flock of 2200 hens. The effects of the environment conditions temperature, dry matter content, pH-value and intestinal microflora of the manure have also been studied. The time of survival was different depending on the housing system. A recovery of viable coccidia oocysts was possible after 13-370 days, ascaris eggs 53-347 days and Salmonella typhimurium 2-175 days. The tenacity of the investigated testorganism mainly depend on the dry matter content of the manure. The longest period of survival of salmonellas was found in dry environment conditions, wereas coccidia oocysts and ascaris eggs have been observed with the shortest period of survival. The possibility of the examined resistant parasite stages to develop was disturbed. Only few of them were able to develop and with a longer development time than those examined in the controll suspension. The results of this study indicate that chicken manure, before using it in plant production, should be stored long enough to prevent men or animals from possible infections. [References: 15] ------------ i searched through some literature on comparisons between contaminations of conventional against organic henkeeping found indications, that avery is not totally wrong. i also asked the breeders from our department of animal breeding and they also PARTLY confirmed the literature. according to them it is more a question of hygienic conditions than a difference between the two systems (the standard deviation IN the system is larger than BETWEEN the systems). the following are no comparisions of organic vs. conventional, but between the three most common systems, nevertheless comparing data from the caged-hen system with the other two still is interesting. the problem with free-ranging seems to be rain or any wet condition (wet air, wind, rain, snow, winter). the hens begin to suffer from cold and get stressed resulting in a reduced abilitity to counterfight infections. the then ill hens remain under constant contact with the infected excrements and REINFECT themselfes again and again (so permanent cleaning as far as possible seems to be the key to avoiding infections) (Siegmann, 1993). infections result in diarrhoea, and the infection remains in the wet straw. then rain or any wetness softens the skin of the hens, so bacteria can penetrate it much easier. result: freeranging hens need a longer and more often application time for antibiotics than housed hens. (Woernle, 1982; Heider u. Ma., 1992; Grashorn, 1993). the need for application of antibiotics can be increased sixfold (Woernle, 1982). some expert do even name this system "pharmaceutical drug dependant" (Tüller, 1996). typical illnesses for free-range systems are botulism, skin and foot infections and parasitosis (worm eggs, toxoplasms, coccidia) caused by sparrow excrements, bugs, snails, cats, rats and mouses (Boch u. Supperer, 1983; Böhm, 1993). the problem contributing most to the conditions seem to be, that one cannot clean and disinfect the run of the hens.. some infections like tuberculosis, cholera (pasteurella multocida, a facultative human pathogen) and red legs (1:1 translation, english name unknown, infection of the lower extremities) are even found EXCLUSIVELY in free-range systems (Morgenstern u. Lobsiger, 1994). then there is the problem of cannibalism and feather picking, which is more often found in this system. in the hen-keepers journal DGS 1 / 97, p. 27) there was a report of a free-ranging farm with more than 5000 hens, which suffered from a DAILY loss of 60 - 70 hens by cannibalismus, because they could not shorten the bills due to the animal rights league. reasons for the picking are itching, mites and skin infections, which are more often found in free-range systems than in housing systems (Morgenstern u. Ma., 1995). it is reported, that older and thus more experienced hen-keepers are better of than younger and unexperienced ones and "hobby farmers" (Morgenstern u. Lobsiger, 1994). at the 3. scientific congress of organic farming (jan 1995 in kiel) there were reports of up to 50% !! animal losses due to coccidia and the broad usage of coccidiostatica on organic farms, which was NOT according to the ifoam-rules. (Zollitsch u. Ma.,1995) contaminations of eggshells: caged hens : max. 240 coliform-forming colonies per egg freeranging hens: max. 4,7 millions table 1: contamination frequencies of hen eggs from caged, ground-kept housing and free-ranging systems with germs (Escherichia coli, Proteus and similars. (Matthes, 1983) +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | free-ranging |ground-kept h.| caged house| |-------------------+--------------+--------------+------------| | shell surface | 53,0% | 28,1% | 11,3% | |-------------------+--------------+--------------+------------| | inner shell | 5,0% | 2,5% | 0,0% | | (germ penetration)| | | | |-------------------+--------------+--------------+------------| | egg yolk | 3,1% | 0,6% | 0,0% | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ and at last there's another risk, which is no risk for the consumer: i remember a recent talk with a collegue, who complained, that ALL his 25 hens and ducks were killed by the fox in less than 3 weeks, although he took precautions (clothes with human urine, fences). the ducks were just killed and not carried away (too large). but hens in an accessable hen-house are really easy prey and cocks won't help either. a good cock is the first to get killed. (anybody has some better ideas than human urine as repellant against foxes ???) and now the highlight, my collegues from the breeding station told me: my most consumers eggs from free-ranging systems are recognized as healthier than caged eggs. consequence: it's especially the risk groups among the consumers (rheumatics, diabetics, older people and these with transplants, hiv-infected, children), who tend to prefer these eggs or to whom they are served! accoording to them this makes almost all the published statistics they read about relations of infection risks between the three systems suspect, even wrong and sometimes just ridiculous, because these risk groups get the salmonellosis much easier and by a much lower number of germs than healthy people ! literature (sorry, mostly in german, most of them standard books for university students) Siegmann, O: Kompendium der Geflügelkrankheiten. Parey Verlag, Berlin 1993 Woernle, H, Deutsche Geflügelwirtschaft und Schweineproduktion (DGS) 1992/Nr.35/S.978-981 Heider, G et al: Krankheiten des Wirtschaftsgeflügels. Bd. I u. II, FischerVerlag, Jena - Stuttgart 1992 Grashorn, M, DGS 1993/Nr.34/S.10-14 Tüller, R, Landwirtsch. Wochenblatt Weser-Ems 1996/Nr.16/S.46 Boch, J, Supperer, R, Veterinärmedizinische Parasitologie. Parey Verlag, Berlin 1983 Böhm, R, Dtsch Tierärztliche Wochenschrift 1993/100/S.275-278 Drost, H, van der Drift, DW u. Oude Vrielink, HHE (1995): Labour hygiene. In: Aviary housing for laying hens( Blockhuis, HJ, Metz, JHH, eds) IMAG-DLO Report 95 - 31, S. 103 - 116 Hoop, R, Swiss Veterinary 1995/12/S.11-15 Morgenstern, R, Lobsiger, Ch, Lohmann Information 1994/Jan.-Apr./S.13-15 Morgenstern, R et al., Vortragsveranstaltung des Bayerischen Geflügelwirtschaftsverbandes 1994, zit. n. DGS-Magazin 1995/Nr.2 Morgenstern, R, zit. n. Landwirtschaftsblatt Weser-Ems 1996/ Nr.46/S.24-25 Siegmann, O: Krankheiten des Wirtschaftsgeflügels. Bd. I, Fischer Verlag, Jena - Stuttgart 1992 Zollitsch, W et al., Beitrag zur 3. Wiss. Tagung des Ökologischen Landbaus in Kiel, Wiss. Fachverlag, Gießen 1995/S.57-60 Matthes, S, Hohenheimer Arbeiten 1983/126/S.86-101 Woernle, H et al, DGS 1986/Nr.43/S.1318-1320 why i'm nevertheless a fan of eggs of higher-priced ground-kept hens from a local farmer ? a caged-house egg in germany costs about 19 pfennig. this means, mr. average can buy one egg from the salary of less than 1 minute work or 70 eggs for 1 hour. and this means: the foodstuff for the caged-house hen is way too cheap (and thus bad, too often tasting like old fish) and a farmer cannot make a living with prices like that... in other words: it is not SUSTAINABLE for the entire farming community ! klaus To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". 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