There were a couple people that read of our conversation about Oxine and wanted further details. I thought I would share some information about it gathered from several sources.
Oxine is known to kill every bacteria, virus, and mold it has ever been tested against and is 200 times more effective than chlorine bleach. But one of the most impressive things about Oxine for me is that it does it with such relative safety (when used according to label instructions). Environmentally speaking, Oxine actually biodegrades to ordinary table salt. And it is so safe to use on livestock that it is actually approved for use in the drinking water of organically grown animals.
Oxine is used in many commercial operations in the automated drinking lines for poultry. It keeps the bacteria level down in the water lines, prevents biofilm from developing, and keeps the birds healthier by keeping down the pathogen level that could potentially travel form one bird to another. The side benefit for commercial growers is that Oxine makes the drinking water more palatable to the birds and therefore they drink more. This is especially important in layers, but can have a benefit in any operation since it also improves feed conversion.
Technically, Oxine Concentrate is a 2% chlorine dioxide gas suspended in an aqueous solution. It is diluted with water to varying degrees depending on how you would like to use it. Since it is a disinfectant and not a drug, it must make direct contact with the pathogen in order to kill it. In the diluted inactivated state, Oxine is perfectly safe to use around both your birds and yourself. Oxine can also be activated using citric acid crystals, which release more of the available chlorine in the solution, but I highly discourage this method of use within the fancy. If you were to activate the product, it is recommended that you wear a NIOSH approved respirator and you would not be able to fog the solution into any area where the birds are present. Without activation, I am very comfortable with using the product without a respirator or mask, although you should follow whatever precautions you are most comfortable with.
use 1/8 tsp/gallon of water for ducks bath water to keep the bacteria level down and to help prevent bacterial enteritis, since we all know what ducks do in their water besides drink from it. They can get a separate small dish (that they wont fit into) at night before bed with drinking water that you can fortify with vitamins, minerals, and probiotics if you choose but not with Oxine in it which could kill the beneficial bacteria in the probiotic supplement.
use 1/8 tsp/gallon of water in chickens drinking water to keep down the biofilm (slime) that forms on the inside of the waterers. It also keeps the bacteria level down for when that amazingly accurate missile of a dropping somehow makes it into the drinking water trough every day.
use Oxine to fog the entire inside of the coop (including the birds themselves) once a week. It keeps the dust down and knocks all of the viruses, bacteria, and mold spores out of the air. It also keeps the air fresh smelling in there. Oxine also has a residual disinfecting quality so try to moisten surfaces such as roosts with the fog. I see no need to remove feed or drinkers form the coop.
Other possible uses for the product are an egg dip prior to incubation (always using water warmer than the egg and at the rate of 4 oz/gallon of water). In this case, you would simply dip the egg in the solution and lay it on a clean paper towel to air dry do not rub since that would breach the eggs cuticle, something which is important to hatching success. You can also use it at the rate of 7 drops/gallon of water in your water reservoir in your incubator, and/or in a humidifier that may be running in a room where you store eggs prior to incubation.
Oxine has so many approvals for use in the (human) food industry that theyre too numerous to mention here, but its worth noting since it reinforces Oxines overall relative safety.
Foggers are not that cheap, but probably more effective than humidifiers. I have seen a fogger in action but never used one. I can tell you that the vapor is def. finer and more smoky like. Many people use an ultrasonic humidifier though and it seems to work. I do know of the prevail sprayer from prevail.com that is a cheap hand held (partially disposable) unit that people have used at shows on their birds before and after caging...but have never used it.
