Energy-saving ventilation system for sheep premises to ensure food security and safety

Abstract

The impact of stress on an animal’s physiological and behavioral state and the final meat quality has been extensively established. Prior to slaughter, animals are usually denied food and drink to reduce stomach content and minimize contamination from gut contents spilling from unintentional punctures to the gastrointestinal system during the eviscerating procedure. Feed withholding offers the benefit of lowering consumption of food as well as morbidity and death rates while in transit. Food restriction, on the other hand, triggers a stress reaction and causes animals to lose weight. In sheep farming, ventilation systems that functioned at temperatures above the threshold air temperature and relative humidity were very efficient and productive. The ventilation system proposed here works by using soil warmth, i.e., a renewable source of energy, and contributes to environmental protection. The results of theoretical and experimental studies of an energy-saving ventilation system using soil heat are presented. The use of an energy-saving ventilation system reduces energy and labor costs for creating a microclimate in sheep premises. The device of an energy-saving ventilation system is protected by the patent of RK KZ 26930 dated 15.07.2016.