Temporal and Environmental Drivers for Survival of Escherichia coli in Florida Soils Amended with Heat-Treated Poultry Pellets and Composted Poultry Litter
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: • A two-year field study quantified E. coli survival in soil with poultry amendments. • Escherichia coli persisted longer in soils amended with biological soil amendments. • Linear-mixed effect model identified key weather variables of bacterial survival. • Rainfall and wind speed significantly impacted E. coli survival. Previous studies have shown that field environmental conditions influence pathogen survival in the soils amended with biological soil amendments of animal origin (BSAAOs). To address this, a two-year completely randomized design field study in Florida was conducted with plots amended with heat-treated poultry pellets (HTPP), composted poultry litter (PL), unamended (UN), all inoculated with Escherichia coli . Onion bulbs were transplanted into selected HTPP plots (O-HTPP) and field cured after harvesting. Soil samples were enumerated for E. coli on days 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, 56, 84, 112, 140, 147 (harvest day), 161 (after curing). The E. coli data was used to fit a linear mixed effect model (LME) with five weather variables: cumulative rainfall (cmrain 4 ), average air temperature (at60 1234 ), relative humidity (RH 1234 ), wind speed (W 1 ), soil temperature (ast 1 ). Overall, E. coli levels were 1.8 and 1.6 log 10 CFU or MPN/g higher in HTPP than UN plots in Year 1 and Year 2. The LME for soil amendment plots identified weather parameters that significantly influenced E. coli survival; cmrain 4 and W 1 increased and decreased survival by 0.698 and 0.712 log 10 CFU or MPN/g (p<0.01) , in Year 1. In the LME that compared plots with and without onions, W 1 significantly increased survival in soils by 0.504 log 10 CFU or MPN/g ( p<0.05 ) in Year 1 (p<0.05). These robust LME models (R 2 : 0.88-0.92) can predict the E. coli population in soils amended with poultry-litter based amendments with or without onions. However, future studies will benefit from frequent samplings at later time points.
Source: Journal of Food Protection
Institutions: University of Georgia, University of Florida, Agricultural Research Service, Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory, Louisiana State University, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Water Science and Technology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,300
Awards: G2480605987, G4666111342
OpenAlex ID: W4415305138