Czech J. Anim. Sci., 2010, 55(8):337-345 | DOI: 10.17221/176/2009-CJAS

The influence of litter age, litter temperature and ventilation rate on ammonia emissions from a broiler rearing facility

M. Knížatová1, Š. Mihina1,2, J. Brouček1, I. Karandušovská2, J. Mačuhová3
1 Animal Production Research Centre in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic
2 Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic
3 Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Animal Husbandry, Poing, Germany

The research reported in this article attempts to address the ammonia problem by quantifying the effect of several variables on ammonia concentrations and emissions. These variables include litter temperature, litter age and ventilation rate. Data was collected in a commercial tunnel-ventilated grow-out facility with deep litter, designed for 25 000 broilers, during 6 consecutive flocks. Birds were housed from hatching to approximately 40 days of age. Litter temperature and litter age were positively correlated (P < 0.0001) with the production of ammonia gas. The amount of ammonia emissions increased with the litter age (P < 0.0001) as a consequence of both the increased ammonia concentration and the ventilation rate (P < 0.0001). The lowest concentrations of NH3 were observed in a "summer" period, although ammonia emissions tended to be higher just in summer months because of a higher ventilation rate. The elevated levels of ammonia in winter were attributed to the lower ventilation rate during cold weather. After the evaluation of ammonia emissions it can be concluded that during the grow-out period of broilers kept on renewed litter there is an average loss of 6.18 g ammonia per bird and/or 0.043 kg of ammonia per bird yearly. The increase in litter temperature during grow-out periods is a process which could be controlled to prevent excessive ammonia volatilization from housing facilities.

Keywords: ammonia; litter; broiler chickens; grow-out period; ventilation rate

Published: August 31, 2010  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Knížatová M, Mihina Š, Brouček J, Karandušovská I, Mačuhová J. The influence of litter age, litter temperature and ventilation rate on ammonia emissions from a broiler rearing facility. Czech J. Anim. Sci. 2010;55(8):337-345. doi: 10.17221/176/2009-CJAS.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Brewer S.K., Costello T.A. (1999): In situ measurement of ammonia volatilization from broiler litter using an enclosed air chamber. Transactions of the ASAE, 42, 1415-1422. Go to original source...
    2. Carr L.E., Wheaton F.W., Douglass L.W. (1990): Empirical models to determine ammonia concentrations from broiler chicken litter. Transactions of the ASAE, 33, 1337-1342. Go to original source...
    3. Coufal C.D. (2005): Quantification of litter production and the fate of nitrogen in commercial broiler production systems. [A dissertation.] Texas A and M University, USA.
    4. Coufal C.D., Chavez C., Niemeyer P.R., Carey J.B. (2006): Nitrogen emissions from broiler measured by mass balance over eighteen consecutive flocks. Poultry Science, 85, 384-391. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    5. Council Directive 2007/43/EC (2007): Laying down minimum rules for the protection of chickens kept for meat production The Council of the European Union, Luxemburg.
    6. Elliot H.A., Collins N.E. (1982): Factors affecting ammonia release in broiler houses. Transactions of the ASAE, 25, 413-424. Go to original source...
    7. Gates R.S., Casey K.D., Wheeler E.F., Xin H., Pescatore A.J. (2008): U.S. broiler housing ammonia emissions inventory. Atmospheric Environment, 42, 3342-3350. Go to original source...
    8. Lacey R.E., Redwine J.S., Parnell C.B. (2002): Emission factor for broiler production operations. In: ASAE Annual International Meeting, GIGR 15 th World Congress. Chicago, Illinois, USA, 024212.
    9. Lacey R.E., Redwine J.S., Parnell C.B. (2003): Particulate matter and ammonia emission factors for tunnel ventilated broiler production houses in the southern United States. Transactions of the ASAE, 46, 1203-1214. Go to original source...
    10. Liang Y., Xin H., Tanaka A., Lee S.H., Li H., Wheeler E.F., Gates R.S., Zajaczkowski J.S., Topper P., Casey K.D. (2003): Ammonia emissions from U.S. poultry houses: part II - layer houses. In: Proc. 3rd International Conference on Air Pollution from Agricultural Operations. American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, USA, 147-158.
    11. Liu Z., Wang L., Beasley D., Oviedo E., Baughman G., Williams M. (2006): Effect of litter moisture content on ammonia emissions from broiler operations. In: Workshop on Agricultural Air Quality. Washington, USA, 859-860.
    12. Parker D.B., Pandrangi S., Greene L.W., Almas L.K., Cole N.A., Rhoades M.B., Koziel J.A. (2005): Rate and frequency of urease inhibitor application for minimizing ammonia emissions from beef cattle feedyards. Transactions of the ASAE, 48, 787-793. Go to original source...
    13. Redwine J.S., Lacey R.E., Mukhtar S., Carey J.B. (2002): Concentration and emissions of ammonia and particulate matter in tunnel ventilated broiler houses under summer conditions in Texas. Transactions of the ASAE, 45, 1101-1109. Go to original source...
    14. Reiter K., Bessei W. (2000): Das Verhalten von Broilern in Abhängigkeit von Gruppengröße und Besatzdichte. Archiv für Geflügelkunde.
    15. Richard T.L., Wheeler E., Varga G., Kaye J., Bruns M.A. (2005): Strategies for reducing gas emissions from dairy farms. Penn State Dairy Cattle Nutrition Workshop, USA, 91-96.
    16. Vaičionis G., Ribikauskas V., Benediktavičiute-Kiškiene A., Skurdeniene I. (2006): Emission of materials of biological origin in laying hens houses with different technologies of rearing. Czech Journal of Animal Science, 51, 458-465. Go to original source...
    17. Vučemilo M., Matković K., Vinković B., Jaksić S., Granić K., Mas N. (2007): The effect of animal age on air pollutant concentration in a broiler house. Czech Journal of Animal Science, 52, 170-174. Go to original source...
    18. Wheeler E.F., Casey K.D., Zajaczkowski J.S., Topper P.A., Gates R.S., Xin H., Liang Y., Tanaka A. (2003): Ammonia emissions from U.S. poultry houses: part III- broiler houses. In: Proc. 3rd International Conference on Air Pollution from Agricultural Operations. American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, USA, 159-166.
    19. Wheeler E.F., Casey K.D., Gates R.S., Xin H., Zajaczkowski J.S., Topper P.A., Liang Y., Pescatore A.J. (2006): Ammonia emissions from twelve U.S. broiler chicken houses. Transactions of the ASAE, 49, 1495-1512. Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content