Copper coatings for antibiotics reduction in fattening livestock

In the current work, twin-wire arc-sprayed copper coatings are investigated to reduce the spread of pathogenic germs in broiler farming. Compressed air and nitrogen are used as process gasses, while the coating torches are varied. The results demonstrate a reduction of 99% pathogenic load due to the presence of coatings in comparison with the uncoated nickel-chromium-steel. This accounts especially for the bacterial strains E.coli, S.aureus and E.cecorum, which are the predominant bacteria in broiler farming. Moreover, posttreatment processes like cold plasma, tungsten inert gas arc processing and shot peening are investigated to further increase the bactericidal properties and abrasion resistance characteristics of the coatings. Further investigations involve the microstructure and the electrical conductivity of the coatings. In this work, it is demonstrated that copper-coated surfaces have an inhibitory effect on bacterial growth of the three investigated bacterial strains compared to the uncoated bulk nickel-chromium-steel material.