Special Issue "Housing Environment and Farm Animals' Well-Being"
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Welfare".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: animal environmental engineering; precision poultry farming; poultry health and welfare
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Interests: animal smart sensoring; robotics; behavior monitoring; welfare assessment; airborne transmission of pathogens; and environment management
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Housing enviornment affects the health and well-being of farm animals of livestock and poultry raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Poor air quality (e.g., high levels of indoor ammonia, particulate matter, and airborne bacteria) may deteriorate animals’ health/well-being over time in CAFOs. Mitigating air pollutants generation and suppressing levels of housing air pollutants are critical for maintaining the well-being of farm animals. This special issue of Animals “Housing Environment and Farm Animals' Well-Being” encourages the submission of original research, review, and communication related to livestock and poultry environmental management, air quality control, emissions mitigation, and assessment of animal health and well-being. Publications in this issue will provide references for researchers, students, and animal agriculture producers to enhance on-farm environmental management and animal well-being.
Dr. Lilong Chai
Dr. Yang Zhao
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- farm animals’ environment
- animal health
- livestock well-being
- air quality
- emissions mitigation
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Effects of a partially perforated flooring system on ammonia emissions in broiler housing â Conflict of objectives between animal welfare and environment?
Authors: Carolin Adler; Alexander J. Schmithausen; Manfred Trimborn; Sophia Heitmann; Birgit Spindler; Inga Tiemann; Nicole Kemper; Wolfgang Büscher
Affiliation: University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Abstract: The partially (50%) perforated flooring system showed positive effects on health- and behavior-based welfare indicators without affecting production performance. Ammonia (NH3) is the most common air pollutant in poultry production with an effect on animal welfare and environment. The objectives of animal welfare and environment are often incompatible. Therefore, this study addresses the question how the partially perforated flooring system affects NH3 emissions. Three fattening periods were carried out with 500 Ross 308 broilers per barn (final stocking density: 39 kg m-2). The experimental barn was equipped with an elevated perforated area in the supply section, accessible by perforated ramps. The remaining area in the experimental barn and the control barn were equipped with wood shavings (600 g m-2). Beside the different floor types, management was identical. Air temperature (Temp), relative air humidity (RH), NH3 concentration, and ventilation rate (VR) were measured continuously. Furthermore, dry matter content (DM), pH, and litter quality were assessed. Towards the end of the fattening periods, the NH3 emission rate (ER) of the partially perforated flooring system was higher compared to the littered control barn (all P < 0.001). This effect is mainly caused by the higher NH3 concentrations, which are promoted by the lack of compaction underneath the elevated perforated area and the increase in pH value under aerobic conditions. Nevertheless, the system offers different approaches for NH3 reduction that were previously not feasible and potentially contributing equally to animal welfare and environmental protection.
Title: Evaluation of TiO2 based photocatalytic treatment of odor and gaseous emissions from swine manure with UV-A and UV-C.
Authors: Jacek Koziel
Affiliation: Iowa State University, Ames, United States
Abstract: It is essential to mitigate gaseous emissions that result from poultry and livestock production to increase industry sustainability. Odorous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and greenhouse gases (GHGs) have detrimental effects on the quality of life in rural communities, the environment, and climate. This study's objective was to evaluate the photocatalytic UV treatment of gaseous emissions of odor, odorous VOCs, NH3, and other gases (GHGs, O3 – sometimes considered as by-products of UV treatment) from stored swine manure on a pilot-scale. The manure emissions were treated in fast-moving air using a mobile lab equipped with UV-A and UV-C lights and TiO2-based photocatalyst. Treated gas airflow (0.25 to 0.76 m3∙s-1) simulates output from a small ventilation fan in a barn. Through controlling the light intensity and airflow, UV dose was tested for techno-economic analyses. The treatment effectiveness depended on the UV dose and wavelength. Under UV-A (367 nm) photocatalysis, the percent reduction of targeted gases was up to i) 63% of odor, ii) 51%, 51%, 53%, 67%, and 32% of acetic acid, propanoic acid, butanoic acid, p-cresol, and indole, respectively, iii) 14% of nitrous oxide (N2O), iv) 100% of O3, and 26% generation of CO2. Under UV-C (185+254 nm) photocatalysis, the percent reductions of target gases were up to i) 54% and 47% for p-cresol and indole, respectively, ii) 25% of N2O, iii) 71% of CH4, and 46% & 139% generation of CO2 & O3, respectively. The results proved that the UV technology was sufficiently effective in treating odorous gases, and the mobile lab was ready for farm-scale trials. The UV technology can be considered for the scaled-up treatment of emissions and air quality improvement inside livestock barns.
Title: Responses of Heavy Broilers’ Surface Temperature to Heat Stress under Air Velocity Treatment
Authors: Suraiya Akter1, Yingying Liu1,2, Yan Qian1,2, Bin Cheng1, Derek West1, John Classen1, Lingjuan Wang-Li1*, Hernan Cordova3, Viviana San Martin Diaz3, Edgar Oviedo3
Affiliation: 1Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University
2Nanjing Agricultural University, China
3Prestage Poultry Science Department, North Carolina State University
*Corresponding author
Title: Modeling of Heat Stress in Sows. Part 1: Establishment of the Prediction Model for the Equivalent Temperature Index of the Sows
Authors: Mengbing Cao; Chao Zong; Xiaoshuai Wang; Guanghui Teng; Yanrong Zhuang; Kaidong Lei
Affiliation: College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Abstract: Heat stress affects the estrus time and conception rate of sows. Compared with other stages of pigs, sows are more susceptible to heat stress because of more heat production. Various indicators can be found in literature assessing the level of heat stress in pigs. However, none of them is specific to assess the sows’ thermal condition. Moreover, those thermal indices were mainly developed by considering partial environment parameters, and there is no interaction between the index and the animal’s physiological response. Therefore, this study aims to develop a thermal index specified for sows, called equivalent temperature index for sows (ETIS), which includes parameters of air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity. Environmental and physiological data were aggregated to develop and validate the new thermal index. The ETIS heat stress threshold was proposed by associating with the temperature-humidity index (THI) threshold. Results show that the ETIS model can predict sows’ physiological response in a good manner. The correlation coefficients R of skin temperature was 0.82, respectively. Compared to early developed thermal indices, ETIS has the best predictive effect on skin temperature. This index could be a useful tool for assessing the thermal environment to ensure thermal comfort for sows.
Title: Modeling of Heat Stress in Sows. Part 2: Comparison of Various Thermal Comfort Indices
Authors: Mengbing Cao; Chao Zong; Yanrong Zhuang; Guanghui Teng; Shengnan Zhou; Ting Yang
Affiliation: College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Abstract: Heat stress has an adverse effect on the production performance of pigs, and the economic loss caused by heat stress every year is immeasurable. The thermal environment index is an important indicator for evaluating the level of heat stress in animals. Many thermal indices have been used to analyze the environment of the pig house, including temperature and humidity index (THI), effective temperature (ET), Equivalent Temperature Index for Sows (ETIS) and enthalpy (H), etc. Different heat indices have different characteristics, and it is necessary to analyze and compare the characteristics of heat indices to select a relatively suitable heat index for specific application. This article combs the thermal environment index used in the process of pig breeding, and compares various heat indices in four ways: 1) Equivalent temperature change method, comparing the change of equivalent temperature caused by different relative humidity; 2) Comparison of the influence of air flow velocity on the thermal index, comparing the influence of different air velocity on ET and ETIS; 3) Humidity Enthalpy diagram method, the iso-exponential line fitting of different heat indices is compared and analyzed in the humidity enthalpy diagram; 4) Numerical simulation method, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology to analyze the thermal environment distribution of simple pig houses under different heat indices, and Analyze its correlation with the heat dissipation of pigs. The results show that the ETIS performs better than other thermal indices in the analysis of sow’s thermal environment, followed by THI2, THI4 and THI7. There are differences in the heat transfer characteristics of pigs at different stages, and animals have different adaptability to different environments. Therefore, based on the above results, the author puts forward the following suggestions: And according to the pig production performance of different regions and different growth stages, the thermal index threshold is divided. Establish a complete thermal index distribution and thermal threshold zone based on different regions to provide a more accurate control basis for environmental control.