ACCUMULATION OF ELEMENTS IN FRACTIONATED BROILER LITTER DURING RE-UTILIZATION

Poultry litter is a mixture of broiler (chicken, Gallus gallus domesti cus) excreta and bedding material. The broiler industry may produce mo re litter than can be locally land-applied with causing environmental degradation. Passing whole litter through 0.83- and 3.33-mm sieves sep arates a fine fraction that can be land-applied as fertilizer and a co arse fraction that can be mixed with bedding and re-utilized in broile r houses. A study was conducted to determine whether the coarse litter fraction could be re-utilized as a supplement for bedding in broiler houses with significant accumulation of heavy metal and other elements . Wood shavings supplemented with either stored or fresh coarse litter and a treatment of unsupplemented wood shavings were used as bedding material during a 40-day broiler growth period. Initial and final litt er samples were collected and analyzed for Al, As, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, N, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Si, Sr, and Zn. Results indic ated that element concentrations in wood shavings bedding supplemented with litter did not increase significantly during the final 30 days o f a 40-day growth period. However, significant accumulation of several litter elements in unsupplemented wood shavings bedding during the en tire 40-day growth period indicated that repeated recycling of litter as a bedding supplement may lead to significant accumulation of elemen ts in litter.