| Performance goal: Treatment minimises organic matter in the water on meat chicken farms. |
|---|
| Description: Organic matter in drinking water increases disinfectant demand and microbial growth which can adversely affect bird health. It can also impact water treatment processes by increasing the required chemical doses, reducing the effectiveness of filtration and adsorption processes, and fouling membrane systems. A range of analytical techniques offer more information on organic matter concentrations. Colour and turbidity were selected as indicators of organic matter in water as they are simple, fast and have cost-effective tests. |
| Performance criteria: Organic matter levels in water are controlled. Best practice level: turbidity <1.0 NTU and colour (true) 0–15 HU Maximum acceptable level: turbidity 0–5 NTU and >15 HU based on laboratory or on-farm testing |
| Minimum requirements |
| All water is filtered before disinfection to remove organic matter: Turbidity and colour monitoring system is installed after disinfection. |
| Best practice options |
| Use multiple filters in series, with reducing pore size. For example, use a series of polypropylene (PP) filters which could include 50 micron, 25 micron, 10 micron and 1 micron filters. Or Use biological filtering after primary filtering, e.g. a biologically activated carbon filter. Or Activated carbon filtering. Refer to Table 12 (below) for a comparison of the effectiveness of different pre-treatment options. |
| Automated TDS, turbidity and colour monitoring system installed on inlet source water before treatment, directly after disinfection and at the inlet of each shed. |
| Replacement disinfectant chemicals, filters and other associated consumable products on standby. |
| Backup power and duplicate facilities to treat water. |
Other information
Table 12. Effectiveness of pre-treatments against organic matter
| Effectiveness against organic matter contamination | Sediment | Particulate organic matter | Dissolved organic matter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-treatment | |||
| PP filter | H | LM | L |
| Ceramic filter | H | LM | L |
| Pleated filter | H | LM | L |
| Rapid sand filters | H | LM | L |
| Semi-rapid sand filters | H | LM | L |
| Slow sand filters | H | LM | LM |
| Centrifugal filtration | H | LM | L |
| Powdered activated carbon (PAC) | L | M | H |
| Ground activated carbon (GAC) | L | M | MH |
| Biologically activated carbon (BAC) | L | M | MH |
| Ion-exchange resins | – | – | – |
| Chemical coagulates | L | MH | MH |
| Lime softening | L | L | L |
| Chemical oxidation | L | H | H |
| Reverse osmosis | H | H | H |
| Nanofiltration | H | H | MH |
| Ultrafiltration | H | H | MH |
| Microfiltration | H | H | LM |
| Electrodialysis | L | M | M |
| Electrodialysis reversal | L | M | M |
| Capacitive deionisation | L | L | L |
| Membrane capacitive deionisation | L | L | L |
| Aeration | L | L | L |
| Electronic water conditioning | – | – | – |
| L: low, LM: low to moderate, M: moderate, MH: moderate to high, H: high, –: N/A | |||
