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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Livestock Nutrient Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #93860
Title: ANALYSIS OF ENDOTOXIN IN FEEDYARD AIR AND PLAYAS: ENDOTOXIN EFFECT ON MARKET STRESSED FEEDER CALVES

Author
item Purdy, Charles
item STRAUS, D - TEXAS TECH UNIV.-LUBBOCK
item LOAN, R - TX A&M-COLLEGE STATION,TX
item Briggs, Robert
item PARKER, D - WTA&M UNIV.-CANYON, TX
item AUVERMANN, B - TAES/TAEX-AMARILLO, TX
item CHIRASE, N - TAES/WTAMU-AMARILLO, TX
item STORZ, J - LSU-BATON ROUGE, LA
item WILLIAMS, P - IBT REFERENCE LAB-KANSAS

Submitted to: High Plains Beef Conference
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/7/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Feedyard fugitive dust is the number one nuisance problem of feedyards, according to surrounding neighbors and small towns located downwind of feedyards. Accompanying this problem is the increased pressure exerted by State and Federal regulatory agencies on feedyard owners regarding air, soil, and water quality. Our knowledge of fugitive organic dust is limited dand we have essentially no knowledge of feedyard endotoxin (ET) concentrations. A quantitative kinetic version of Limulus assay was used to determine the ET concentration of the samples. Three Andersen two-stage air impactors were each equipped with two glass Petri plates containing 20 ml of sterile reverse osmosis (RO) water. Each of the air impactors drew 28.3 L/min for 30 min, endotoxin was removed from the air and deposited in the Petri plates containing the RO water. The mean ET concentrations of six feedyards in the winter were compared among five feedyards in the summer. The winter plate 0 ET samples were four times greater (mean 4.07 ng/ml) than plate 0 in the simmer (mean 0.43 ng/ml). The winter plate 00 ET samples were 49 times greater (mean 0.43 ng/ml) than plate 00 in the summer. -- Endotoxin concentrations in seven feedyard playas (shallow lakes) (mean 8,001 ng/ml) were compared to three non-feedyard playas (mean 156 ng/ml) in the winter. Similar comparison were made in the summer: six feedyard playas (mean, 8,640 ng/ml) and two non-feedyard playas (mean, 267 ng/ml). The environmental significance of these findings on the health of feedyard calves or on wildlife is unknown.