Correlation of air pollutants and thermal environment factors in a confined pig house in winter

Abstract

Optimal management of indoor air quality in a confined pig house, especially in winter, is indispensable for preventing infectious respiratory disease to workers and animals. This study was performed to elucidate the correlation of aerial contaminants and climate factors in a confinement. It was observed that indoor air contaminants ion in the confinement was the highest at 2:00-5:00 pm in a day, followed by 8:00-11:00 pm and 8:00-11:00 am. This was attributed to the increase of pig activities in the afternoon. The concentration of total dust and total airborne bacteria was found to have a significant correlation with temperature and relative humidity (p<0.05). Correlation of total dust and total airborne bacteria, total dust and ammonia, and total dust and odor were shown statistically significant at 95% confidence level. In conclusion, temperature and total dust concentration correlated significantly with all the parameters except for hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This could be explained by the fact the dryness of pig feces by increase of interior temperature and resuspension of feed deposited on the floor by the pig activity, resulted in high generation of dust which adsorbed and carried the airborne bacteria and odor compounds in a confined pig house. It was proved that the adsorptive capacity of dust with ammonia (NH3) was higher than that with hydrogen sulfide (H2S).