Utilization of Poultry Litter to Enhance Fungal Activity and Microbial Dynamics in the Presence of Pesticide Mixture: Implication on Pesticide Bioremediation

Chemical products such as pesticides have been used to increase crop production, especially in undeveloped countries. Poultry litter, the combination of feces and bedding materials, has also been used as an alternative to improve soil quality for crop production.However, the effect of chemicals such as pesticides on microbial population and the fungal growth have not been determined. In this study, five treatments were prepared to investigate microbial population and fungal growth in pesticide mixture. Specifically, this study was carried out to establish the effect of a mixture of pesticides on poultry microflora and a fungus (Trametes versicolor CDBB-H-1051) that is known to be able to degrade pesticides. The results showed that poultry litter was able to enhance fungal growth better than vitamins in the presence of pesticide mixture. Therefore, poultry litter can serve as growth substrate for fungal growth and provide additional capable microflora for pesticide bioremediation. This can reduce cost quite substantially when replacing the required vitamins for growth with poultry litter at contaminated sites or treatment systems such as barrier walls.