Corrosion of drinkers in poultry; What causes it and why it’s more of a problem today than ever

In recent years, poultry producers have become increasingly concerned about the threat to their birds from a number of common strains of diseases. To combat this threat, producers often look no further than popular general disinfection agents such as chlorine and bleach to quickly and easily kill and prevent the growth of bacteria and pathogens in the water. Producers may think stainless steel is bullet proof against whatever cleaner they use, but it’s not. Chlorine, bleach and other acid based cleaners have the capacity, when used aggressively, to dissolve the layer of chromium oxide. Once this happens pitting and rust can occur on the ball and seat, compromising the seal and creating leaks. Corrosion: What causes it and why it’s more of a problem today than ever. To avoid costly internal corrosion damage to drinkers, it is important to know how drinkers can be damaged by the misuse of cleaning agents, and to understand which sanitizers need to be avoided and which are appropriate for cleaning the interior stainless steel parts of a drinker. Using oxide-damaging chemicals that cause drinkers to corrode and leak,makes litter gets much wetter, which promotes pathogen growth and increased ammonia release. The house environment becomes less hospitable for raising healthy, robust birds, and producers end up bringing about the very problem they were trying to avoid. . see