Potential for Ammonia Generation and Emission in Broiler Production Facilities in Brazil
Fernanda Campos de Sousa,
Ilda de Fátima Ferreira Tinôco,
Vasco Fitas Cruz,
Matteo Barbari,
Jairo Alexander Osorio Saraz,
Alex Lopes da Silva,
Diogo José de Rezende Coelho,
Fatima Baptista
Affiliations
Fernanda Campos de Sousa
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa 36570-900, Brazil
Ilda de Fátima Ferreira Tinôco
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa 36570-900, Brazil
Vasco Fitas Cruz
Departamento de Engenharia Rural, Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, MED—Instituto Mediterrâneo para a Agricultura, Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, Universidade de Évora, Évora 7000-849, Portugal
Matteo Barbari
Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (GESAAF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, 13-50145 Firenze, Italy
Jairo Alexander Osorio Saraz
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin 050034, Colombia
Alex Lopes da Silva
Department of Animal Science, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa 36570-900, Brazil
Diogo José de Rezende Coelho
Departamento de Engenharia Rural, Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, MED—Instituto Mediterrâneo para a Agricultura, Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, Universidade de Évora, Évora 7000-849, Portugal
Fatima Baptista
Departamento de Engenharia Rural, Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, MED—Instituto Mediterrâneo para a Agricultura, Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, Universidade de Évora, Évora 7000-849, Portugal
Air quality is one of the main factors that must be guaranteed in animal production. However, the measurement of pollutants is still a problem in several countries because the available methods are costly and do not always apply to the reality of the constructive typology adopted, as in countries with a hot climate, which adopt predominantly open facilities. Thus, the objective of the present study was to develop predictive models for the potential generation and emission of ammonia in the production of broiler chickens with different types of litter, different reuse cycles and under different climatic conditions. Samples of poultry litter from thirty commercial aviaries submitted to different air temperatures were analyzed. The experiment was conducted and analyzed in a completely randomized design, following a factorial scheme. Models were developed to predict the potential for generation and emission of ammonia, which can be applied in facilities with ambient conditions of air temperature between 25 and 40 °C and with wood shaving bed with up to four reuse cycles and coffee husks bed with up to six reuse cycles. The developed and validated models showed high accuracy indicating that they can be used to estimate the potential for ammonia generation and emission.
