Dust emissions from a tunnel-ventilated broiler poultry shed with fresh and partially reused litter
Robin L. Modini A , Victoria Agranovski A C , N. K. Meyer A D , Erin Gallagher B , Mark Dunlop B and Zoran D. Ristovski A EA International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, Qld 4000, Australia.
B Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries, Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, PO Box 102, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.
C Present address: Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane, Qld 4000, Australia.
D Present address: Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland.
E Corresponding author. Email: z.ristovski@qut.edu.au
Animal Production Science 50(6) 552-556 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN09207
Submitted: 15 December 2009 Accepted: 25 February 2010 Published: 11 June 2010
Abstract
Dust emissions from large-scale, tunnel-ventilated poultry sheds could have negative health and environmental impacts. Despite this fact, the literature concerning dust emissions from tunnel-ventilated poultry sheds in Australia and overseas is relatively scarce. Dust measurements were conducted during two consecutive production cycles at a single broiler shed on a poultry farm near Ipswich, Queensland. Fresh litter was employed during the first cycle and partially reused litter was employed during the second cycle. This provided an opportunity to study the effect that partial litter reuse has on dust emissions. Dust levels were characterised by the number concentration of suspended particles having a diameter between 0.5 and 20 μm and by the mass concentration of dust particles of less than 10 μm diameter (PM10) and 2.5 μm diameter (PM2.5). In addition, we measured the number size distributions of dust particles. The average concentration and emission rate of dust was higher when partially reused litter was used in the shed than when fresh litter was used. In addition, we found that dust particles emitted from the shed with partially reused litter were finer than the particles emitted with fresh litter. Although the change in litter properties is certainly contributing to this observed variability, other factors such as ventilation rate and litter moisture content are also likely to be involved.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Australian Poultry Cooperative Research Centre for providing funding and the integrators, owners, managers and employees of the poultry farm for access to their facilities, production data and industry knowledge.
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