Free available chlorine in commercial broiler chicken drinking water in New Zealand.

Free available chlorine (FAC) concentrations in drinking water supplied to broiler chickens grown commercially in New Zealand were monitored for 11 farms in two companies. Different sites within a growout house were examined at different times of the day to determine spatial and temporal differences in FAC concentrations. Taps provided water with significantly higher FAC concentrations than did drinkers. There were no significant differences between the concentrations of FAC taken from various drinkers around the growout house. There were differences in the variations of measurements taken from the same drinker within a growout house at different times of the day, with variations increasing in the afternoon. No growout houses provided an average FAC content of 2 ppm, the suggested standard in one company. Three growout houses consistently met the chlorine concentration of 0.2 ppm suggested by the New Zealand Drinking Water Standards.