Poultry production's environmental impact on water quality

Poultry meat and eggs are rapidly becoming the major source of animal protein in the diets of American consumers. Such expansion has resulted in a similar increase in waste management problems. The national production of broilers and mature chickens was 5.68 billion, 242 million turkeys, 31 million ducks, and 69 trillion table eggs in 1989 based on the USDA National Statistics Survey. Annual production of fecal waste from poultry flocks was 8.8 million tons on a dry weight basis plus more than 106,000 metric tons of broiler hatchery waste. Add to this 37 million dead birds and condemnations at processing plants (figures are also from USDA for 1989 based on USDA National Statistics Survey). When all this waste is added together, the task of keeping the environment clean becomes monumental. The following waste management practices can and must take care of these poultry industry waste products: sanitary land fills, rendering facilities, extrusion machinery, compost plants, lagoons or holding tanks, and land application techniques.