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Effects of In-House Composting of Litter on Bacterial Levels

Department of Poultry Science, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849

¹ Corresponding author: macklks{at}auburn.edu

Placing 1-d-old chicks on used litter may lead to unexpected health problems due to high bacteriological counts. Composting litter between flocks is one possible method of decreasing bacteriological counts. At the end of two 7-wk broiler growouts, in-house composting of pine shaving litter was performed, and bacterial counts were taken. In the first trial, composted pine shavings attained an internal temperature of 55°C that lasted for 40 h. After the initial temperature gain, the composted litter maintained a steady temperature of 35°C. Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial counts were lower in composted vs. uncomposted litter. Moisture content was lower in the uncomposted pile than the compost pile. Water activity was higher in the composted pile than in the uncomposted litter. Among the 8 treatments in the second trial, litter that was composted, wetted, and covered achieved the highest internal temperatures of >50°C, which was sustained until trial termination (7 d). The other treatments did not achieve a temperature increase of this magnitude and, if not wetted, the observed temperature increase lasted <24 h. In litter that had been composted for 1 wk, moisture content was lower regardless of treatment. Water activity was highest in treatments that had water added and that were not covered. Composted, covered, not wetted pine shavings produced the lowest aerobic and anaerobic bacterial counts. The results of these 2 trials show that in-house composting of pine shaving litter can reduce bacterial counts, especially when the compost pile is covered.

Key Words: bacterial count • compost • in-house

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