Effect of chemical litter treatments on ammonia reduction and litter quality improvement in broilers reared in the monsoon season

The present experiment was conducted to assess the effect of chemical litter treatments on ammonia emission control and improvement of litter quality in broiler chickens reared during the monsoon season (August-September 2020) at Anand, Gujarat. A total of 144 straight-run, day-old commercial broiler chicks were randomly allocated to six treatment groups, each comprising four replicates with six chicks per replicate, total of 24 chicks per treatment. The six treatments included: T1-control group with rice husk as litter material; T2-rice husk treated with alum at 90 g/sq.ft.; T3-rice husk treated with boric acid (H?BO?) at 24 g/sq.ft.; T4-rice husk treated with sodium bisulfate (NaHSO?) at 25 g/sq.ft.; T5-rice husk treated with a commercially available probiotic product at 1 g/sq.ft; and T6-rice husk treated with a liquid formulation of Yucca schidigera at 1 mL/sq.ft. The respective litter treatments (T2 to T6) were applied uniformly on the 1st, 15th, and 29th days of the experimental period.The study assessed litter pH, moisture content (%), nitrogen levels, and ammonia emissions (ppm) at weekly intervals up to the sixth week of age under various experimental treatments. At six weeks, T2 showed significantly lower pH and ammonia concentrations, with the minimum ammonia level recorded in T2 (p<0.01). Although litter moisture (%) was lower in T2 and nitrogen content was higher compared to other treatments, these differences were statistically non-significant. Overall, the results indicate that broiler birds reared on rice husk litter treated with alum (90 g/sq.ft) had reduced ammonia emissions and improved litter quality.