A new practice whereby wet slurry is added daily to the cattle
manure bedding at the barn and cultivated has been developed in Israel. The objective of the present study was to examine the effect of
manure cultivation on the persistence of Escherichia coli in a model system. A cow
manure-derived E. coli strain was tagged with green fluorescence
protein (GFP) and antibiotic resistance markers and was used to inoculate cow
manure in 10-L buckets. After 3 successive cycles of inoculation and cultivation, wet slurry was added during an additional 2 cycles. After 32 d, the cultivated and noncultivated
manure contained 677 ± 14 and 505 ± 2 g·kg(-1) DM, respectively. The cultivated
manure remained drier compared with the noncultivated
manure after the addition of wet slurry, and its texture remained lumpy compared with the compact, cohesive, and sticky texture of the noncultivated
manure. Throughout the experiment, the counts of the tagged E. coli were less (P < 0.05) and disappeared faster in the cultivated than in the noncultivated
manure. These results support the hypothesis that daily cultivation of
manure may result in reduced incidence of
mastitis and improves the welfare and performance of dairy cows.