The effect of cattle manure cultivation on moisture content and survival of Escherichia coli.

A new practice whereby wet slurry is added daily to the cattle manure bedding at the barn and cultivated has been developed in Israel. The objective of the present study was to examine the effect of manure cultivation on the persistence of Escherichia coli in a model system. A cow manure-derived E. coli strain was tagged with green fluorescence protein (GFP) and antibiotic resistance markers and was used to inoculate cow manure in 10-L buckets. After 3 successive cycles of inoculation and cultivation, wet slurry was added during an additional 2 cycles. After 32 d, the cultivated and noncultivated manure contained 677 ± 14 and 505 ± 2 g·kg(-1) DM, respectively. The cultivated manure remained drier compared with the noncultivated manure after the addition of wet slurry, and its texture remained lumpy compared with the compact, cohesive, and sticky texture of the noncultivated manure. Throughout the experiment, the counts of the tagged E. coli were less (P < 0.05) and disappeared faster in the cultivated than in the noncultivated manure. These results support the hypothesis that daily cultivation of manure may result in reduced incidence of mastitis and improves the welfare and performance of dairy cows.