why gut health and water hygiene?
Across the farming industry, producers continue to focus on improving health and welfare. Coupled with the desire to drive efficiencies, productivity and maximise returns, there is an ever-increasing focus on gut health and good water hygiene as a relatively simple and cost-effective way of achieving this.
From the start of an animal’s life and as they reach maturity, the focus is on getting the right foundations in place to develop healthy livestock. And how this is managed throughout the rest of their productive life, will have an impact on performance.
The acidification of drinking water to promote gut health is a long-established protocol that controls pathogenic bacteria by penetrating the bacterial cell wall, lowering the pH within the bacteria, and prevents it replicating.
Our organic acid products – ABC Start and ABC pH – are administered through the drinking water. The benefits include:
- Promoting the growth of positive bacteria
- Encouraging the development of the microflora
- Lowering the pH within the gastro-intestinal tract, that means livestock are better placed to withstand any challenges from pathogenic bacteria
- Stimulates the development of the immune system
- Encourages water consumption to promote early growth and feed consumption
- Improving the palatability of water
- Controls pathogens such as E.coli and Salmonella
Water is probably the most forgotten “nutrient” in farming. It constitutes 88% of cow’s milk, 77% of a typical broiler chicken and makes up 76% of a chicken’s egg. It is a core element of good health and is often an area that is overlooked as a contributor to livestock performance. Good quality water is essential for aiding digestion, transportation of nutrients around the body, body temperature regulation and the removal of waste products.
There are a number of factors regarding water hygiene and water quality that can impact animal health, welfare, and performance that includes microorganisms including bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Many of these can be pathogenic such as pseudomonas, E.Coli and salmonella and often flourish in water systems and can result in comprised animal health. Eliminating these pathogens from drinking systems is essential to enhancing livestock performance. A key issue when looking at water hygiene and pathogen risk is biofilm.
Biofilms are a complex matrix of bacteria, fungi, and algae bound together in a sticky gel of polysaccharide and other organic contaminants attached to a surface. The bacteria produce a slime layer in which they live that anchors them firmly to a surface and which provides a protective environment to grow and reproduce. Different bacteria prefer and adhere to different surfaces. Pseudmonas is commonly found in poultry systems and has a huge capacity to form biofilms in drinking lines. Therefore keeping systems free from biofilm is highly important.
The supply of water also needs consideration when looking at water hygiene, especially if it is from a private supply. These supplies come with an increased risk of initial bacterial contamination as well as potentially containing high levels of mineral content. Certain mineral elements can further increase the risk of bacterial contamination and other elements can directly impact animal health and welfare.
Water is an essential nutrient for animal production and ensuring the supply is not only suitable for livestock but will not detrimentally effect animal health and welfare is highly critical and often overlooked.