Using stainless steel water troughs and adding chlorine to the water can help prevent dairy cows from getting Johne’s disease, according to ARS research.

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Stainless steel’s all the rage in gourmet kitchen design, but its appeal could soon extend well beyond the kitchen to the nation’s dairy farms, thanks to intriguing discoveries by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at the agency’s Animal Waste Management Research Unit in Bowling Green, Ky.

The scientists say switching to stainless steel watering troughs could be an important step toward controlling Johne’s disease, which can cause losses of as much as $200,000 per year in a herd of 1,000 dairy cows.  Those losses are mostly from reductions in milk production and the need to cull infected animals.

Johne’s disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium paratuberculosis.  The ARS scientists suspected that water troughs might provide a perfect home for bacteria, so they counted the Mycobacteria on the sides of the most commonly used troughs:  concrete, plastic, stainless steel or galvanized steel.

While the scientists found high concentrations of the bacteria on all the troughs within three days of inoculating the water with the bacteria, and those bacteria survived for more than 149 days, the bacterial survival rate was lowest on the stainless steel.

The scientists say there’s a simple trick to making the troughs even less hospitable for the bacteria:  add 3 tablespoons of chlorine bleach per 100 gallons of trough water weekly.  When the scientists tried that, by the end of the third week, less than 1 percent of the bacteria still lingered in the stainless and galvanized steel troughs.  That’s compared to 20 percent remaining in the plastic troughs and 34 percent in the concrete troughs.

2 Responses to “Stainless Steel’s Appeal Stretches from the Kitchen to the Dairy Farm”

1. Kathleen Waters says:

   12/06/2011 at 9:06 AM

   The synopsis of the research article is clear, however, wondering if the research went a bit further regarding the duration and effects the ingestion of chlorine has on cows and/or its effects on the consumer and environment. Is there some biodegradable produce that could/can do the samething that would not have an impact on the environment that chlorine is known to have?
2. Rana Tucker says:

   12/12/2011 at 10:16 AM

   If the bleach is killing off bacteria in the tanks, and the cows are drinking the bleach, is it then killing off bacteria in their gut as well?