Virkon S.

Naturally for Birds Information Update 6:

Gary Fitt Brisbane.

VIRKON S

– EFFECTIVE WATER TREATMENT FOR SEED SPROUTING

Naturally for Birds is proud to now be a distributor of

Virkon™ S, one of the most effective disinfectants available for use in animal production systems worldwide.

With powerful, proven performance against over 500 strains of viruses, bacteria and fungi, Virkon™ S is selected by governments worldwide for Emergency Disease Control.

In aviculture our use of Virkon S is in the soaking of seed for sprouting as a highly nutritious food for breeding finches, parrots, canaries and budgies. Sprouted seed is an ideal medium in which you can mix our range of supplements (PRIMA, PROTEIN BOOST or MICRONUTRIENTS), but you need to ensure that your sprouting process maintains cleanliness of the seed. Soaking seed can lead to proliferation of bacteria or fungi in the warm, moist conditions.

Mike Fidler has been breeding birds for 70 years and perfected his feeding techniques when breeding 2000 Gouldians a year in England. Mike has routinely used Virkon S as a sterilant in his seed sprouting technique for decades. You can see a video on this process on the Naturally for Birds website – www.naturallyforbirds.com.au . Many other bird breeders now use Virkon S too.

There are absolutely no side effects of using Virkon S in your soak water and has a proven performance against many microbes. Virkon S is registered for many applications in animal production systems including disinfection of water delivery systems, an application not dis-similar to our use in seed soaking.

Available in 50gm sachets or 1kg containers.

How do we use Virkon S for seed soaking?

To soak 1 kg of seed (mixed seed, black seed mix, white seed mix) add 1 heaped teaspoon of Virkon S to 2 litres of water, pour over the seed and leave for approximately 2 hours. Then drain thoroughly and leave in a warm location for 24 to 36 hours to sprout. You want the seed to be just sprouted, what we call chitted, and after, the seed should be drained to be relatively dry, not soggy and wet. After the initial draining of the Virkon S solutions from the seed, some people may feel more comfortable rinsing thoroughly in cold water, but this re-soaks the seed so you need to ensure that the seed is well drained again after this.

Once the seed is chitted, you can then mix in your Naturally for Birds supplement and store frozen until you need to use it.

Habitually we make up a month’s batch at a time.