Location: Food Animal Environmental Systems Research
Project Number: 5040-12630-007-038-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2024
End Date: Dec 31, 2028
Objective:
1. Ammonia mitigation in the broiler chicken house through biochar poultry litter amendment
2. Nutrient evaluation of biochar amended poultry litter for corn production
3. Evaluation of biochar poultry litter amendment for the mitigation of foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistance in poultry production system
4. Evaluation and improving anaerobic digester system for high quality biogas yield and continuing to assist the cooperator on improving the operation of the digestion system.
Approach:
For objective 1, Studies will be carried out to examine the ammonia emissions during the biochar poultry litter amendment experiments. Intensive gas monitoring using photoacaustic gas analyzer will be carried out at the poultry houses prior to biochar amendment, during and post application to see the effect of biochar on reducing ammonia emissions in poultry house. Poultry litter samples will also be collected and analyzed for ions, volatile fatty acids (VFA), and other nutrients.
For objective 2, after chickens are harvested, poultry manure combined with biochar will be removed from the poultry house and used for a field plot study to investigate nutrient availability to crop compared with poultry litter alone and fertilizer.
For objective 3, Experiments will be conducted with biochar amended houses for treatment evaluation and control houses with no biochar amendment. Poultry litter samples will be collected at different time points over full flock cycles. Poultry litter samples will be collected as a grab sample or using MicroTally mitts. Samples will be cultured at ARS lab for Salmonella, extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing E. coli and Campylobacter. The isolates will be confirmed by PCR and tested for their antimicrobial resistance at ARS lab. The Salmonella isolates will be whole genome sequenced through a research collaboration with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researcher; sequences will be deposited to a publicly available National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database for bioinformatics analysis for the differentiation of the Salmonella isolates into serotypes, and to determine their genotypic antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. Metagenomic DNA extracted from the poultry litter samples will be shotgun sequenced at a commercial sequencing company for the analysis of microbial and resistance profiles for a thorough understanding of the biochar effect not only on specific bacteria and resistance elements, but on all bacteria and resistance determinants present in the samples. The sequence data will be deposited to NCBI as described above.
