[The effect of flying ash immissions on performance and health of broilers]

Up to 500 mg fly ash from a soft-coal based power station were intratracheally administered to 353 broilers in ten test series. No detrimental impact on the animals' performance was recorded measurements of live weight curves, feed consumption, and feed conversion. Dust contamination of the animals' lungs was a pathologico-anatomic finding made in differentiated degrees. Erythrocyte and leucocyte counts as well as staining indices were normal and did not show any statistically significant deviations from the values in animals that had not been treated with fly ash. In most of the experimental animals haemoglobin values were significantly below those recorded from the controls. No compensatory reactions were recordable from staining index 1, for example, no rise of erythrocytes and haemoglobin. The above experiments and their results seem to suggest that fly ash emission is not a factor to rule out close neighbourhood of industralised broiler units to large-scale power stations.