Activated drinking water – higher performance

Hygienic drinking water is a basic requirement for the health and performance of agricultural animals, especially young animals in piglet rearing. Drinking water should always be tasty and tolerable. Increased bacterial loads in the water can lead to indigestion, diarrhea and thus significant economic disadvantages. The causes are often contaminated well water, unclean storage containers or water pipes containing germs. A 2007 guideline from the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) contains guidelines on how hygienically perfect drinking water should be.

This is an orientation framework for the feed law assessment of the hygienic quality of drinking water in connection with the feed hygiene regulations. These orientation values ​​are listed in Table 1. The orientation framework also contains specifications for the chemical and physico-chemical quality criteria of drinking water, which must also be observed. However, this will not be discussed in more detail in this article.

In order to bring the biological drinking water quality to the required standard, suitable structural, technical or organizational measures must be taken in the company.

Among other things, various disinfectant water additives such as organic acids or chlorine dioxide have proven to be effective. Another way to improve drinking water quality is recommended in the form of a special anolyte activation. This technology creates two different solutions that complement each other in their effect. Anolyte has a high redox potential, i.e. the ability to kill all harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. ANOLYTE was used in the experiment.

As a weakly chlorine solution, Anolyte is characterized primarily by a medium pH value (~7,5 pH) and the main active ingredient, hyperchlorous acid, with a redox potential between 680 and 700 mV. For dry food, an addition of 1-2% in the drinking water is recommended, for liquid food an addition of 2-5% in the mixed water. This drinking water supplement leads to the removal of biofilms in water pipes, eliminates germs in drinking water and ultimately leads to increases in animal performance. Appropriate studies were carried out to examine the technology, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of this process. For this purpose, Anolyte was added to the drinking water in the test compartments at a dosage of 200% in a farm with 1 DL x DE sows. After weaning, the piglets received drinking water with and without anolytes in parallel groups. The results of 8 water tests are shown in Table 2.

Alarmingly high values ​​only affected sample 2. The effectiveness of ANOLYTE was demonstrated impressively clearly in all 4 samples. In all parameters, the bacterial load fell to 0. Only in sample 7 of the experimental drinking water were two colony-forming units (CFU) lost in the colony count at 36°C.

The physical-chemical tests were used to check the use of ANOLYTE. The disinfectant properties are based particularly on the temporary formation of chloride ions and free chlorine. Their redox potential, i.e. the willingness to react with germs, is higher and more active and can be recorded with a current voltage measurement.

The redox potential of the drinking water with 1% ANOLYTE was around 680 mV. The conductivity values ​​and the chloride and free chlorine contents also showed clear differences between the original and test drinking water.

The results in Table 3 show how the improved water quality affected the performance of rearing piglets.

The performance was at a high level and the loss rate was less than 2,5%. Nevertheless, the test piglets were still able to slightly improve their daily weight gain by an average of 17 g to 485 g in the range of 7 to 33 kg. When coughing began, the air in the stable of the test piglets was nebulized with a mixture of water and anolyte in a ratio of 70:30. The nebulizer was used once a day for about 5 minutes over a period of about 30 days. The experimental piglets recovered more quickly. The loss rate was more than halved and fell to 0,9%.

Reports from other practical studies of noticeably higher water consumption by piglets with Anolyte could not be confirmed in this trial. It is possible that the high content of around 5 mg of free chlorine per liter in the drinking water of the experimental piglets already acted as a slight brake on consumption. Despite the excellent drinking water quality, the use of Anolyte could not prevent a massive E.Coli outbreak in the test piglets.

Obviously, contaminated drinking water is not the only cause of diarrhea caused by E.Coli. Other important influencing factors are, for example, feed quality and feed composition. Pigs, especially piglets, need high-quality, germ-free drinking water for high biological performance and a stable health status.

The addition of Anolyte resulted in top quality drinking water. The daily weight gain improved slightly in this practical trial. Since other factors besides drinking water also play a major role, the result can vary greatly in individual cases. The use of Anolyte solutions for the hygienization of drinking water has been approved since November 11 in accordance with Section 2006 of the TrinkVO and the list of the Federal Environment Agency.

Excerpt from the application of ECA water – Anolyt & Katolyt

Link to the book excerpt