Digestion of poultry manure by Musca domestica¹

Published with the approval of the Director of the Colorado State University Experimental Station as Scientific Series paper no. 1774.

Synopsis

Larvae of the house fly (Musca domestica) grew and developed normally in fresh poultry manure where the proper environmental conditions were maintained. A temperature of 27 °C and a moisture content ranging from 60 to 75% in fresh poultry manure was determined to be optimum for larval development. A moisture content of 80% or greater created anaerobic problems for larvae.

Optimum production of house fly pupae was obtained by inoculating 0.50 to 0.75 g of fly eggs per kg of fresh poultry manure. Five to eleven days were required for the eggs to be converted to pupae depending on the environmental conditions. After digestion, the poultry manure, was reduced to about half and was granular in texture. The digested residue readily dried, had less odour and contained approximately 15% protein.

Notes

Published with the approval of the Director of the Colorado State University Experimental Station as Scientific Series paper no. 1774.