poultry dung as feed for fish

[Rajkumar Rajarajan]

 I just came across my friends farm, he is doing integrated livestock farming with fish and poultry.

He has adapted 2 systems one being free range chickens which are put in a shelter, during night time, right above the fish pond which means the dung doesn't get mixed with the poultry feed.

Another system in which the chicken is inside a cage and feed is given in to the cage. By this method the chicken dung along with feed and more feather, than the previous method, falls in to the pond clogging the suction heads and filters.

By either of the methods there are advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages being the cost for fish feed is reduced drastically and fish seems to love poultry dung and growth of fish is excellent, no need to look at the clock to feed the fish because the chicken drops through out the day and night. On an average Tilapia reaches about 500-600 gms in 5 - 6 months time.

Disadvantages are the bacterias and viruses present in the dung could contaminate the water which in turn could do the same to fish. Some results have shown that fish meat have had salmonella if the poultry is infected with the same.

Now he has planned to do a system in which the poultry is separate and the dung is collected in a tray and then heated on a shallow tray starting with low temperatures until it reaches about 60deg centigrade and once it is dried it is added in to the fish tank.  The dung seems to have very less odor and has the same effect as fresh manure or fresh dung and free from bacteria and virus.

well how about introducing this system to an Aquaponics system. Just came across and wanted to share. some ideas and thoughts about this would be great.

thank you for your valuable time

Regards,

Rajkumar rajarajan

[George]

I would not want my fish and vegetables to be contaminated by the chicken droppings and would not practice this at all.

[Debra Colvin]

In the above system, the poulty poo is not feed.. Its meant to promote rapid growth of algae, which is the real fish food. That being said, the nitrates in such a system would quickly get out of balance. I don't think it is a safe practice, but it is common in poorer regions.

[Bob Rogers aka The White Lion]

Regarding the use of animal poop to supplement for fish feed ??  Not a smart idea !

There have been issues with salmonella and a number of other bacteriological contaminations of fish and other produce being grown in this manner. A number of farms in China and Viet Nam have been found to have extremely high levels of dangerous bacteria in the meat of the fish and produce.  The farmers were caught using barnyard animal poop to supplement the fish feed because the farmers were trying to cut their fish-feed costs.  Hungry fish will eat just about anything because they don’t know any better.

This is a dangerous practice and unless you are doing some sort of science experiment, you don’t want to be responsible for making people sick or even causing their deaths.

There are other safer ways to harvest the nutrients from animal fertilizers.  

All I can say is; DON’T DO IT ! ! !

[Rajkumar Rajarajan]

thanks for the time Bob, yeah i heard about that China and Vietnam earlier.

What do you think about killing the salmonella with high temperatures would all the least goodnesses be lost too? Say by collecting the poop and transferring them to a tray and heat it gradually till it reaches 70 deg cent and then add them to the fishes. I did some learning about this kind too and found to be ok. Any thoughts about this? please share your ideas