Assessment of the role of silver nanoparticles in reducing poultry mortality, risk and economic benefits

The paper reports a study conducted in two poultry farms of West Medinipur district, West Bengal, India with a target to reduce the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli) in the poultry drinking water by the application of a formulation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The lab-synthesized AgNPs had an average size of 15 nm. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of AgNPs for the farm water was considered 50 mg/L. Two poultry farms A and B were selected as case and control groups, respectively, for sampling. The study was designed with three replications. In the case group, the supplied water, generally used for the poultry in both the cases, was dosed with synthesized AgNPs throughout the study period, while in the control group the untreated water was supplied for drinking by the poultry. The study also included the impact of AgNP dose on factors of standard poultry growth performance like mortality count, feed intake (FI), body weight (BW) and food conversion ratio (FCR). The observations revealed that, compared to the control, in the case group the percentage mortality rate was reduced significantly (p < 0.05), and FI and BW increased significantly (p < 0.05), but no significant effect, however, was observed on FCR (p > 0.05). The results of average 4.92% mortality of case poultry, compared to the average 14.13% mortality in control, would potentially provide substantial economic benefit to the farmers. Moreover, the consumption risk assessment surmised that a 1.2 µg/g of silver retained on the poultry and hazard quotient (Ag) was 0.34 (< 1) which is considered non-toxic on the poultry, and the poultry is fit for human consumption. A cost–benefit analysis weighs in favour of AgNP use by the farmers to particularly deal with the effects of E. coli.