Stabilised liquid oxygen! MetO2 is used to oxygenate drinking water for farm animals.
In Agriculture we are make relatively little use of the enormous benefits of oxygen. I think that the main reason for this is that it’s something that is staring us in the face so that we don’t notice it.
Most of the Agricultural innovations comes from small companies who put enormous time and effort into observing what nature does and then putting those observations into practice. Stabilised liquid oxygen started as an observation made by a farmer who used it for something completely different. From that one observation it developed into all kinds of different applications that benefit farmers, livestock and crops…
In 2022 we started oxygenating drinking water for (dairy)cows. The reason was very simple: the cows rumen was not getting enough oxygen due to modern farming methods. This generally means that not only is the drinking water is oxygen poor, but also their nutrition being mainly silage (fermented grass, etc) also being oxygen poor. That means that the rumen is not working optimally: A considerable proportion of the rumen bacteria consists of obligate anaerobe. Facultative anaerobes, which represent a small amount of the bacterial population, are essential to maintain the rumen environment absolutely anaerobe conditions by consuming oxygen arisen from feed intake. Those bacteria require a small amount of oxygen to maintain their vitality.[1]
Our aim was to slightly increase the oxygen in the rumen so that the oxygen would block the methane bacteria from producing methane and increase food digestion by the cow as Methane production blocks ±10% of nutrient digestion. The results we obtained were excellent and we could – based on the results – actually demonstrate that we blocked the methane bacteria and for those insisting that the rumen had to be completely oxygen depleted we clearly demonstrated that actually a small amount of oxygen is hugely beneficial.
But the main reason farmers are using MetO2 isn’t simply because it suppresses the Methane bacteria, they are using it because of the economic benefits they obtain – in other word they make more money from hyper-oxygenating their drinking water with MetO2 than what the product costs. The other main benefit was that the general health of the herd improved – eg: less cases of mastitis & Mortellaro (hoof infection).
HYPER-OXYGENATING ANIMAL DRINKING WATER
We have also dosed drinking water of pigs & poultry with success as this reduces the antibiotics requirements in animal farming.
We aim to increase the oxygen level in the water to around 25-30 ppm. Farmers noticed that birds and pigs drank more water and the general health was improved. Another positive was that the manure they produced emitted less smell (ammonia) and had a better consistency.
It was also noted that diseases were not prevalent. We also made an “accidental discovery”. One evening, a farmer noticed the beginning of feet problem in his chicken. He wanted to start dosing antibiotics but in the dark turned up the dosage of MetO2 instead of the Antibiotics. The next day he noticed that the feet problems were gone which was a much faster result than with antibiotics.
The reason it was effective in preventing pathogens development was due to the increased level of oxygen in the water system which rapidly boosted the immune system which was then able to take care of the problem itself - amazing what the body can do...
MANY PATHOGENS DO NOT LIKE INCREASED LEVELS OF OXYGEN
There are a number of test rapports that demonstrate the benefits in pigs and poultry of oxygenating drinking water[2],[3]
A pathogen is defined as an organism causing disease to its host, with the severity of the disease symptoms referred to as virulence. Pathogens are taxonomically widely diverse and comprise viruses and bacteria
These test show that increased oxygen levels increases the immune system of pigs and chicken. It can be assumed that other animals also benefit from this increased immunity as we clearly see this in cows and goats as well.
WATER OXIGENATION IS CHEAP – CERTAINLY MUCH CHEAPER THAN ANTIBIOTICS
NOTE: Many Pathogens do not like increased levels of oxygen. We see this in crop farming as well. Increasing soil oxygen levels prevents certain diseases from occurring as those pathogens do not like increased levels of soil oxygen. Interestingly enough plants immune system is also increased by soil hyper-oxygenation.
ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE:
In many countries it is still the norm to dose antibiotics in the water of chicken and pigs as standard procedure.
This practice is in part responsible for a number micro-organisms having become resistant to antibiotics and it is vital that this practice is ended. It is also not necessary as oxygen has proven to be more effective and cheaper.
The Oxygen in MetO2 does not kill pathogens, it simply creates an oxygen rich environment which is unpleasant to many pathogens – don’t get me wrong, they are aerobic and like oxygen, they just don’t like a surplus of it. Furthermore, the oxygen seems to have the effect of boosting the immune system of pigs and chicken making them better at fighting off these pathogens.
OXYGEN IS MUCH CHEAPER THAN ANTIBIOTICS
If you look at the cost, MetO2 is much cheaper to use than any antibiotic. Besides preventing sickness and increasing the natural immune system of animals, it has other benefits so that all in all it actually has a much higher return on investment than antibiotic.
[1] Rumen physiology: microorganisms, fermentation and manipulation. Hakan Öztürk, Gürsel Gür – Akara University, Faculty of Veterinary Medecine, Department of Physiology, Ankara, Turkey – 30-06-2021
[2]Oxygenated drinking water enhances immune activity in pigs and increases immune responses of pigs during Salmonella typhimurium infection - Bock-Gie Jung 1, Jin-A Lee, Bong-Joo Lee - College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University, 300 Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-757, Republic of Korea. [3] Oxygenated drinking water Enhances Immune activity in Broiler Chicks and Increases Survivability against Salmonella gallinarum in Experimentally Infected Broiler Chicks. Bock-Gie JUNG, Jin-A LEE, Kyoung-Woo Lee. College if Veterinary Medecine, Chonnam National University, Republic of Korea – 13 October 2011